Talking Data Security Over Thanksgiving Dinner

It used to be that when my family asked me what I was doing, and what I worked on, that I’d get about two words in and see a glazed expression start to grow. That’s not going to be the case this Thanksgiving. When I spend time with family now, nearly every single one has been hit by the data breaches this last year.

<ClickToTweet>: Will you talk about #DataSecurity over #Thanksgiving dinner?  We will. http://bit.ly/1zSWRmp

On the retail front - If Target didn’t get them last Thanksgiving, Home Depot did, or they visited Jimmy Johns for sandwiches, P.F. Changs for dinner, or Staples or Michaels lost their data. Then there were the compromises at SuperValu and related supermarkets. Some of them (Like ACME) breached more than once during the year. There is such a long list of retail breaches, that some family members have had their credit cards replaced multiple times, and many also their debit cards as well.  More than one has had fraudulent charges on their cards as a result - and all are feeling distinctly wary about getting another unexpected envelope in the mail from their card companies.

Healthcare data doesn’t come up as often – I’m rarely hearing from people that they’ve been notified of lost healthcare records. This is a bit scary, as the number of healthcare related breaches is rising, with the high value of healthcare records to thieves ($50 per record, and sometimes more).  Another factor that I have to think comes into play - IT Security can have a lower priority in organizations whose first concern is the health of patients - not the health of patients financial status.

Then there are the government related data breaches. Although we haven’t heard from Mr. Snowden recently, he’s on people’s minds still, along with recent breaches at the post office and a long litany of Federal data breaches – although people are less aware of the Federal breaches as reporting and credit services are not required.  The idea of nation state hackers - especially from China and Russia is actually starting to come up without prompting.  People "get it" that there are secrets of technology and intelligence that need protecting - 50+ years of 007 films have seen to that.

When it comes to government, some also have another perspective.  After learning just how much that the NSA knows about our daily lives - or can learn even without a court order - those who take privacy seriously are seriously unhappy, seriously worried, and seriously of a mind to talk about it too.

Still, the result of all this is that the pain caused by these breaches in spreading. Even if people would otherwise be reaching a state of “fatigue” about news of new breaches, they can’t ignore the problem because of the direct effect on their daily lives.

When the topic comes up these days, people are interested, nearby chatter tends to stop (except from the highly opinionated) and others look up with attentive expressions.

So what do I tell family these days when they ask what it is that the company I work for does? I tell them:

• That our products help organizations to keep this from happening to them – protecting data even when other, more traditional, security tools fail
• That numerous customers tell us that our solutions have helped to keep them from becoming a victim of this plague
• That some tell me they’ve caught malicious insiders in the act, and detected APT attacks using our solutions (although explaining what an APT attack is can be a stretch – given the audience)

I can’t mention the names of these customers, but I can tell you that each and every one is “thankful” today that they were already Vormetric customers when this year started, and that the number of these “thankful” customers is growing daily. (Find out what a number of our customers can and will say about Vormetric on our customer reference page here).

Have a great holiday all.