Data Security Demands Foresight

Would you agree that there is a certain appeal to having hindsight? Does the appeal hold when you think of data security?

Your data security?

I grew up hearing that hindsight is 20/20.

Because I have always relied on glasses, the idea of having 20/20 vision gets my attention.

I want 20/20 vision.

But, I want more than that for my data. I want foresight.

Don’t you?

If you shop, or have ever shopped at Home Depot, I bet you do.

Accortding to an IT ProPortal article, Home Depot’s Customer Hack, Many Times Larger Than Target’s Breach,” the company reported that it is looking into “unusual activity” with the help of banks and law enforcement authorities to try to work out what hackers pilfered.”

How is that consolation nugget sitting in your stomach?

Here is another exercise in hindsight:

Paula Drake, Home Depot’s spokesperson said that, “Protecting our customers’ information is something we take extremely seriously, and we are aggressively gathering facts at this point while working to protect customers.

“Extremely seriously,” Paula?

How extreme is that?

Does it include a solution like Guardium that protects databases and provides real time information about who has access to customers data and who should not?

Does your extreme also protect from the privileged user? Does it provide automated compliance?

Paula, your ‘extreme’ needs visibility into the the following:

Who has access to my data?
Who should not have access to my data?
How was my data accessed?
When was my data accessed and for how long?
What controls are in place to protect from the privileged user?

This is data security. This is foresight.

And if you won’t take my word for it, maybe you will listen to this account:

“ The responsibility of the Santiago Stock Exchange is to maintain the data in a very secured environment. We use Guardium to protect our clients’ data from unauthorized access. ” Andrés Araya Falcone, Santiago Stock Exchange