Monday, April 9, 2012

Economist on Data Breaches in US and Europe: As Always, Leadership is What's Needed


I've brought The Economist into the SGSB fray before and I'll do so again now.  There's a short piece just posted on one of their online nodes that talks about two recent studies on data loss and how it might best be averted.

Here's an excerpt:
[Out of 600 European businesses surveyed] more than half thought that technology can solve the problem. Only 1% of the businesses surveyed believed it concerned all employees—and thus required a change in behavior. 
I'm no technophobe, but neither am I a technophile, at least not from a cybersecurity point of view. For me the lion's share of the most effective security and privacy solutions focuses on the humans, and one particular type of human is a must if we're ever going to get in front of these problems: the leader.
Symantec’s study found a correlation between having a senior executive in charge of information security and lower costs of data breaches. “It has to start at the top,” says Marc Duale, Iron Mountain’s head. 
You can read the whole thing HERE ... it's pretty short, and makes an interesting comparison between American and European approaches.

Photo credit: SteFou! on Flickr.com