Thales | Cloud Protection & Licensing Solutions
Today is Data Protection Day - a day established to remind us about the importance of improving our understanding of cyber threats and all things data security. This day was established 11 years ago and its purpose is more important than ever.
Every organisation is, of course, well aware of the cyber security risks they currently face. The various high-profile hacks that occurred since Data Protection Day last year tell a cautionary tale - from Yahoo, in which one billion accounts were breached, to Tesco Bank who had to freeze its online operations when the accounts of 40,000 of its customers were compromised.
With determined hackers stopping at nothing to get their hands on ever more valuable information, businesses need to put security measures in place to protect their most precious data from falling into the wrong hands. And indeed, it is encouraging to see, in our latest Data Threat Report, more and more organisations increasing their security spend to combat the impending threats. Yet, despite the higher spending on security, we also found that more than two thirds of organisations (68 percent) have been breached at some point – a seven percent increase on the previous year.
With budgets and breaches rising in correlation, could businesses be spending their money on the wrong defences?
Better the devil you know
The two top spending priorities for organisations are network and endpoint protection solutions. And despite over three quarters of organisations (76 percent) recognising encryption of data-at-rest as more effective in protecting sensitive data compared to endpoint security, data-at-rest encryption solutions ranked last in our respondents’ security shopping lists.
There is a strong argument, then, to suggest that organisations are sticking to what they know - investing in the same flawed solutions that have worked in the past. However, in a world where more enterprise data is being created, transported, processed and stored outside corporate boundaries – thanks to a rise in cloud adoption and the Internet of Things – traditional endpoint perimeter-based security controls and endpoint protection solutions are no longer sufficient protection.
Teaching old dogs new tricks
Our digital world, which encompasses everything from cloud to big data and the IoT, demands an evolution of IT security measures. The traditional methods aren’t robust enough to combat today’s complicated threat landscape.
This Data Protection Day, organisations need to realise that relying on the tried and tired methods which have worked in the past aren’t going to protect them from hackers who are only getting more targeted and more sophisticated in their efforts. Businesses need to invest in privacy-by-design defence mechanisms – such as encryption – to protect their valuable data and intellectual property, no matter where it resides. There can be no doubt that if security strategies don’t evolve with this fast-changing threat environment, the rate of breaches will only continue to increase.
Read our report today to find out how your organisation can adhere to best security practices and take advantage of new technologies and innovations to battle against the data breaches.