Tougher regulations to help safeguard sensitive data

UK consumers want tougher regulations for organizations that lose customer data. In a poll of 5000 consumers conducted by OnePoll, four out of five respondents felt that companies should be subjected to a US-style breach disclosure law, forcing them to publicly declare data loss incidents.

Consumers were in no doubt about the need for stronger government intervention with 70 percent believing there needs to be more prescriptive regulations. Many thought there should be tougher penalties with 62 percent feeling that organizations should receive large fines and 31 percent going as far as to suggest company directors should be subject to criminal proceedings.

This hard-line attitude toward data breach appears to stem from the public’s lack of confidence in organizations’ abilities to protect the personal information they hold. 63 percent of respondents were concerned that they may become a victim of identity theft through no fault of their own, while half believe neither public nor private sector organizations have sufficient security measures in place to adequately safeguard sensitive data.

Solving this problem will require a new perspective to be applied, not only to data security, but to IT as a whole. It is simply not possible to guarantee the security of systems and data without providing organizations with the ability to take a unified view of their entire IT infrastructure.

IT systems generate log data constantly but too often this information is managed in an inefficient and disparate manner. By deploying an intelligent, automated and centralized log management solution, organizations can be constantly aware of the smallest changes that occur across their IT systems.

This includes files being altered or copied to an external storage device, or malicious external threats trying to gain access to data. Only by attaining a deep insight into what is occurring internally will businesses and public sector organizations be able to truly secure their IT systems and regain the public’s trust.