Business unit strategy for data security

At a recent seminar on information security management, I heard that FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) is dead, that ROI is dead and that the insurance model is dead. Information security needs to give business value. Hmm. This sounds like a terrific idea, but the lecturer was unable to provide a concrete example similar to […]

How can we convince our VP that a network-based DLP makes sense?

My colleague, Michel Godet – sent me a link to an article that Mike Rothman recently wrote. Michel  (rightly) thinks that it supports the approach that we have been pushing in Europe for over a year now, to justify data security technology investments by using Value at Risk calculations. Mike’s article – building a business […]

Data security for SMB

Yesterday, I gave a talk at our Thursday security Webinar about data security for SMB (small to mid-sized businesses). I’ve been thinking about DLP solutions for SMB for a couple of years now; the market didn’t seem mature or perhaps SMB customer awareness was low, but with the continued wave of data security breaches, everyone […]

Sharing security information

I think fragmentation of knowledge is a root cause of data breaches. It’s almost a cliche to say that the  security and compliance industry has done a poor job in preventing data breaches of over 245 million personal records in the past 5 years. It is apparent that government regulation is  ineffective in preventing identity […]

It’s My Way or “La Puerta”

The role of a supervisor in protecting company data. There is a feeling of entitlement in the Western world that enables employees to use company resources for private purposes.  If can use a pencil, you can use a phone, if you can use a phone, you can use your PC to surf the Net on […]

Three simple ways of preventing data loss

When I was a solid state physics grad student at Bar Ilan, I had two advisors – Prof. Nathan Aviezer and Prof. Moshe Kaveh (who is now the President of the university).     Aviezer was fond of saying that he only does simple things. I was calculating electrical conductivity of aluminum at low temperatures and due […]

Data loss prevention at work – video and porn

Bahya ibn Paquda was the author of the first Jewish system of ethics written in Arabic in 1040 under the title Al Hidayah ila Faraid al-Qulub, Guide to the Duties of the Heart. In his view, most people acted in accord with selfish, worldly motives. This was almost 2,000 years ago before the age of […]

N Digital TV data breach in Poland

Polish digital TV broadcaster N (owned by ITI Neovision) has disclosed a breach of customer data records – after PII was discovered accidentally on the Net by a subscriber via a search engine. The partner who manages our offices in Warsaw (the team specializes in high end data security consulting and DLP projects in Central […]

Data security – is psychology more important than technology?

We had a discussion with a prospect for a DLP (data loss prevention) system) that started with discussing the pros and cons of various DLP solutions (Verdasys, Mcafee DLP, Websense, Fidelis Security) and finished with a drill-down into how they can build a business case to acquire and implement data security technology. After a very […]