Online securitySecurity breaches, stolen and lost data, hackers, fraud – all of these are here to stay. Even the most powerful firewalls and anti-virus software, and the most stringent controls, can not keep out the really good (or is that bad) people who have the desire and ability to hack into your systems. Whatever systems you put in place, these hackers can get around. Most of our security systems are there to stop the “average” hacker or the occasional fraudster. The real talent will get past your systems.
What do we do about this? Inc magazine, in an article in their August 05 edition, “Security Lapse” by David Freedman, suggests that you accept it, and ask another question. “I think the smartest move is simply to accept the excellent chances of getting hit, no matter how safe anyone tells you your network is. That will get you thinking about what kind of data you collect, how long you keep it, and what you’ll say to employees and customers if it’s lost. If your computers contain any account information, documents, or e-mail that could, in the wrong hands, bring down your company, then you’re sitting on a time bomb. Unless, that is, you’re pretty sure you can do a much better job of protecting data than the U.S. government has in protecting the top-secret nuclear weapons information on its computers.” Too few companies think about this issue – what data are we keeping, where, and why? We have become data hoarders, and one day this could cause chaos for us.

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