As both personal and corporate data and applications move to the cloud and mobile devices, the saying “trust but verify” takes on new meaning.  It captures the practical reality of a world in which so many of our interactions occur online.  More than ever, we need mechanisms to verify the identity of the entities with whom we interact.

 

Safeguarding of business applications is paramount no matter what the industry. But while many companies are focused on threats from outside of the organization, threats from within — whether intentional or accidental — cannot be ignored.

 

A username and password login process is no longer a sufficient means to protect corporate data, no matter what the size of the organization.

Phishing is an electronic communication scam that attempts to secure highly personal information such as credit card info, user names and passwords by tricking a victim into clicking on an obfuscated URL that takes the victim to a malicious website.

Securing the enterprise cannot be an afterthought in the ‘new normal’ of business today — where demand for IT and business services increase while IT budgets are flat or decreasing.

The public sector heavily relies on today’s large-scale networks to support critical infrastructure, government services and military operations. Networked capabilities (i.e. web services, collaboration, cloud computing and mobility) are expected to improve an organization’s productivity while responsibly managing taxpayer dollars.

A frequently unaddressed challenge is that companies’ most confidential documents are often those that travel the most outside the enterprise. Business depends on sharing information in collaborative processes like coordination among board members; working with research, supply and distribution partners; and communications with outside experts such as external counsel, consultants, auditors and regulatory authorities. However the more a document has to be accessed outside the corporate network, the greater the risk of leakage, so a company’s most sensitive documents are at much greater risk than other documents.

To use the cloud or not to use the cloud, that is the question.

I recently met with the CEO of a large company who had suffered a network security breach. He asked the question, why did this happen and why didn’t my Information Systems people prevent the attack? My answer was simple. As the CEO, you drive your business to have network connectivity and availability. Security is something that always seems to get in the way and only becomes a priority when something bad happens.