Firewalls, anti-malware, virus scans; along with growth in technology, we’ve also seen our society gradually morph into one that’s incredibly focused on data security. That’s certainly not a bad thing. Unfortunately, the problem arises when companies focus purely on the “frontline” security. When such businesses, for example, pour all of their security resources into defending their primary website from hackers, but leave their outmoded devices without a fraction of that protection, disasters are inevitable. Let’s take a look at how you can prevent your business from becoming a data security target.
Two Sides of the Same Coin
Over-emphasis on frontline defense, and thereby leaving your “back doors” open, was perfectly demonstrated when 40 million credit cards were stolen from Target at the turn of the year. After all, the security for their website is impeccable. They stole the data at their point-of-sale. It turns out that, industry-wide, whatever payment system security comes already installed on the devices protects the data. Neiman Marcus, Michaels, and other retail giants have already reported similar data security issues.
“Frontline” security is just as important as “back door” security; they’re just two sides of the same coin.
Access Control
Unfortunately, on the opposite of the end of the spectrum, we have lack of security in places that should obviously have it. Perhaps a case of “being blind to what’s right in front of your face”. Most companies do not incorporate such data security measures as closely monitoring and limiting employee access to company networks and data. In fact, such data, whether patient records or credit card numbers, should be encrypted to make it unreadable.
Outmoded Devices
Appropriate disposal after a given device has reached the end of its life is perhaps one of the most vital, yet also one of the most neglected, areas of data security. It’s important to realize that any retrievable data could potentially render your company’s networks, and reputation, dead in the water.
There are plenty of products on the market today to match your specific needs. Phiston Technologies, for example, produces the MediaVise which uses a “hands off” process to crush hard drives according to NSA standards; the Compact for those who need a desktop sanitation solution; MediaDice, which disintegrates optical disc and magnetic card data storage media; and the MediaVice SSD, the most powerful SSD destroyer available, with a crushing force of 20 tons!
As the world’s technology becomes more complicated, so does data security. You can prevent your business from becoming a data security target by allocating appropriate security resources to secondary networks and devices, controlling access to sensitive data, and appropriately disposing of outmoded devices.
Contact us for more information on securely meeting your data disposal needs!
