Data breach incidents are increasing, study shows
February 04, 2009 (Cnet)
The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) conducts marketing research around the subject of information assurance and often asks respondents whether their organization has suffered a data breach within the last year. Over the past few years, about 30 percent of large organizations (i.e. 1,000 employees or more) have claimed that their organization suffered a data breach within the previous 12-month period.
According to ESG, this pattern was consistent from 2005 through 2007, but when a recent survey was conducted on application and database security at the end of 2008, the results were alarming. In a November 2008 survey of
179 North American-based security professionals, 56 percent claimed that their organization had suffered a data breach within the past 12 months.
Of smaller companies (i.e. 1,000 to 5,000 employees), 61 percent suffered a data breach, while for larger companies (i.e. greater than 5,000 employees), 49 percent had experienced at least one data breach during the same time period.
Based on this data, it appears that the state of data security is getting worse, not better. Increasingly more data passes through enterprises on a daily basis, finding its way onto laptops, thumb drives and into e-mails and IMs. This data is increasingly finding its way into the hands of malicious or careless employees as well.
It is absolutely apparent that CIOs are now being placed in a very difficult situation. The economy is extremely unstable and IT spending is being dictated. But, the ESG data suggests that CIOs need to address data security in a more robust manner. Data breaches are extremely costly, both in terms of a company’s economics as well as its credibility.
YOUnite's patented technology offers a unique solution to the growing problem of data security through the notion of "distributed sharing of personal identity attributes". By applying YOUnite's patented technology, for example, a company could allow access of sensitive data to a third party without having to transfer that sensitive data to the third party’s network. Moreover, the company could selectively share any pieces of data with any specific entity on an individual and granular basis. YOUnite’s patented technology can increase data security and accuracy in an efficient and cost effective way, thereby solving the CIO’s seemingly contradictory data security dilemma.
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