Getting Data Protection Management Right

Your data may be secure when it is at rest or in storage…..

Your data may be secure when it is in motion inside and outside the enterprise…..

But is it secure when it is in use by an authorized user?

When privacy-protected information is stolen or compromised, another major problem arises due to the fact that much of this information is protected by federal and state regulatory laws.  If you are in charge, you are accountable.  With these issues in mind, consider these questions:

• Has your organization implemented measures to build control and accountability around unstructured data that resides in documents stored in File Shares, Content Management Solutions, desktops, laptops, and email?
• Do the measures provide protection against theft by insiders with opportunity or malicious intent?
• Do the measures assure compliance with regulatory laws?
• Do the measures hind or improve the use of operational efficiencies?

Information management is a serious business mandate. It is a moving target, driven by business innovation and threat innovation. In this world of rapid change, we are seeing an unprecedented distribution of the enterprises’ intellectual property and information assets. Compounding this are the escalating demands of citizens, consumer groups, and government legislators for dependable security. In other words, get information security right.

No company is immune from insider fraud, malicious leaks for inside information to the media, trade secret theft and economic espionage, along with a hose of other internal and external attack methodologies, but the negative impact of such attacks is growing significantly.  

The main goal of enterprise security is to protect the organization’s ability to function through its assets: personnel and human capital; data and information; hardware; software; and technologies – all part of the equation.

Strengthening Security Management with the Counterintelligence Model

The counterintelligence model works to protect mission critical information assets across the enterprise and throughout the lifecycle. The formulation of a risk treatment strategy is derived from an assessment and comprehensive analysis of policies, and work practices.  It takes a lead role in assuring that security is executed according to plan.

The Emergence of Enterprise Rights Management

In response to the need to secure unstructured data, information, and content, two predominant technology platforms have emerged: Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Enterprise Rights Management (ERM). DLP solutions are reactive in nature and presume that critical data and information assets within the enterprise environment are ‘unknown’.  ERM solutions, on the other hand, are proactive in nature and presume that critical information assets are ‘known’.  The ERM solution provides three types of security: protection, control, and audits.