Cyber security
Protecting your data – Cyber Security advice for business owners
Cyber security is about protecting all data. This should be as important and instinctive as looking after your wallet, some cash at home, locking your car or simply washing your hands after going to the toilet. In fact, the phrase we have started to coin in the ‘Cyber Valley’ (the Severn Valley) area is ‘cyber hygiene’. This includes the skills, experience, discipline and habits of moving data around by email, file transfer, memory stick, CD or other media.
Information is money
However, we as a society still aren’t valuing data and information like we do cold hard cash. There are signs that this is changing with companies realising that they are “Data rich and information poor.”
The utility and convenience of memory sticks is amazing. The storage space available gets cheaper every year. However, how many memory sticks are encrypted, protecting their valuable content?
Laptops lost at Heathrow
Having read an article stating that 900 laptops are lost at Heathrow airport every week! The article also reported that in the USA and Europe over 15,000 laptops are lost every week. What’s worrying is that less than half are returned to their owners. Most of this may be simple opportune theft or organised crime. Access to computers can be protected by using secure login generators.
If any organisation loses data we should be concerned. I would suggest that most data loss (losing a laptop, memory stick or CD etc.) goes unreported. If a business or organisation is signed up to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) then the business has a responsibility to report the loss by completing a ‘Security Breach Notification Form’.
What should I do?
Consult a reputable Security, Risk Management or IT Consultancy company about how to implement a robust set of Information Assurance processes, tools and techniques. It could save you tens of thousands of pounds.