What if your confidential files could phone home every time they were accessed or if you had a complete audit trail of everything that was done with the file regardless of its location? Imagine if someone renamed the file or changed format and emailed it to someone that was not supposed to have it and you had the ability to kill the file and all of its derivatives! Believe it or not it’s possible.
The majority of the companies we meet think they have adequate levels of security to protect confidential information. The problem is they don’t!
A case in point is a recent incident where Kaiser Permanente experienced a “human error” data breach when an employee mistakenly emailed a spreadsheet about a Wellness Screening competition to a planning team member who was not part of Kaiser. The company is currently alerting patients that their confidential information was compromised. In 2009 Kaiser had to notify 30,000 people that their personally identifiable information (PII) had been compromised after a personal computer was stolen.
How many more incidents does it take for companies to realize they don’t have the right levels of protection? If Kaiser had data-centric security, it would have avoided the fallout from these two events. Files created with confidential information can be managed from the moment they are created to the point they are destroyed – regardless of their location!
80% of breaches are rooted in employee negligence. People are human and they make mistakes. Good technology often can be undermined by bad human decision-making. Can your security applications eliminate this type of threat?
If you’re responsible for ensuring the confidentiality of your company’s confidential data, ask your staff if your files can “phone home”!
Photo credit Jyri
