Category: Data Security

What’s the Biggest Threat to Data Security?

Chief information security officers at banks say their top priority is keeping data of all kinds (customer, employee, credit, performance, you name it) safe from attacks. They answered candidly when we asked who or what the greatest risks are.

Too Much Data Everywhere

There’s a huge pool of data out there that is hard to protect, and it also provides attackers with lots of ammunition.

“The more data out there, the higher the risk,” says Dominic Venturo, chief innovation officer at U.S. Bank in Minneapolis. “Even with things like PCI, we still see data breaches. We’ve also got this old system of user ID and password and the fact that consumers are reusing that data all over the place. On top of that, even when they don’t reuse them, passwords that are human-friendly are often insecure or easy to guess.” Continue reading “What’s the Biggest Threat to Data Security?”

What does Data Security mean

Data security refers to protective digital privacy measures that are applied to prevent unauthorized access to computers, databases and websites. Data security also protects data from corruption. Data security is the main priority for organizations of every size and genre.

Data security is also known as information security (IS) or computer security. Continue reading “What does Data Security mean”

Poor Security Thwarts Three-Quarters of Big Data Projects

Information and analytics make up the new face of innovation for corporates—who hasn’t heard the term “Big Data,” after all. But IT security challenges are getting in the way of executing the vision of dynamic, usable, instantly accessible data frameworks, with three-quarters (73%) of organizations reporting that their business initiatives have been thwarted by data security gaps.

According to a survey from Dataguise, “Strategies for Securing Sensitive Data,” companies are inexorably transitioning toward big data frameworks, including cloud-based environments such as Microsoft Azure HDInsight. In fact, 28% of respondents report more than a year of experience with these big data repositories, and another 38% say they’re in various stages of adoption.

Yet, they’re finding that data security challenges often have a negative impact on their efforts; that 73% said that data security concerns have been so worrisome that in many cases they’ve terminated their projects until further notice.

Even with multiple layers of security in place, less than half of all respondents did not believe that their data was secure, with only 47% of respondents confident that their sensitive data throughout their organization was safe. Continue reading “Poor Security Thwarts Three-Quarters of Big Data Projects”

The CSO 2016 Security Data Analytics Survival Guide

Is big data security analytics still a thing? A handful of years ago security and big data were mentioned in the same breath as one might say peanut butter and jelly, and big data security analytics was the buzz phrase that was buzzing the most loudly in every corner of the security industry. Perhaps the security big data analytics hype machine hit its most fevered pitch in 2013.

Today, we don’t hear quite as much about “security big data.” But that doesn’t mean that it’s no longer relevant. To tweak a phrase familiar from Gartner, the hype is cycling down from the peak of inflated expectations and, hopefully, heading to the plateau of productivity.

Big data security analytics is about using security analytics to improve security and obtain value from cybersecurity efforts. It’s about helping security teams to focus on the threats, vulnerabilities, and security controls that matter.

BAN finds trouble in its own backyard

the Seattle-based group that manages the e-Stewards natural philosophy usage certification program, has revoked that certification for Total Reclaim, saying the city firm “was known by BAN’s e-Trash Transparency Project (an electronic trailing program) to have exported mercury-containing liquid crystal display (liquid crystal display) monitors to metropolis.”

BAN has posted many documents regarding the Total Reclaim state of affairs to its web site, including associate “evidentiary report” and a statement from Total Reclaim’s Craig Lorch and Jeff Zirkle apologizing for the lapses in certification protocol.

“We are terribly sorry that we have a tendency to have disillusioned our business, our customers, our employees and all those that have believed in North American country,” write the duo. Lorch and Zirkle also write, “Economic challenges never excuse wrong behavior. The reality, though, is that squeezed by plummeting commodity prices; increasing labor costs; long, fixed-price contracts; and, especially, a dramatically increasing volume of flat-screen devices, we created a short-run business call to export materials to unsupported process facilities in Hong Kong.”

As part of its e-Trash Transparency Project, BAN says it “placed 200 tiny GPS-based trailing devices into recent printers and monitors and delivered them to Goodwill [Industries] and to numerous recyclers round the country.”

Two caterpillar-tracked devices went from Total Reclaim’s possession to the New Territories of Hong Kong, where units ar disassembled in non-e-Stewards-certified facilities.

A May 9, 2016, BAN news release on the e-Trash Transparency Project additionally scrutinizes the usage partnership between laptop maker holler INC. and Goodwill Industries. BAN says 46 of the two hundred tracker-planted electronic devices were delivered to Goodwill Industries stores within the us which “seven of those later reported their whereabouts in the Asian countries of Asian country, Taiwan and China (mainland and Hong Kong). Six of these were a part of Dell INC.’s Reconnect partnership with Goodwill.”

Says BAN Executive Director Jim Puckett, “Goodwill and Dell have had robust reputations for social and environmental responsibility. Our findings, however, shake the foundations of that public trust and cry for the implementation of immediate reform when it involves e-waste management.”