Data Leaks For Dummies®

Chapter 13. Keeping the Good Stuff In

In This Chapter

• Shielding intellectual property

• Identifying common messaging problems

• Protecting e-mail from accidental loss

• Consistently classifying data

Keeping the good stuff in is about preparation. News of data breaches bring home the reality that organizations are seriously vulnerable to e-criminals mugging their digital assets, malicious insiders deliberately leaking information, and other employees losing data on laptops and CD-ROMS. Worldwide legislation that forces companies to disclose data breaches has elevated what used to be whoops-we-blundered-again mistakes to headline news.

To make matters worse, what looks like a cybercrime may be an honest mistake or run-of-the-mill carelessness. A typical instance of a careless data breach starts when someone obtains copies of someone else's identifiable personal information or company intellectual property. But there's no guarantee that the person who appropriates that data

• Will know what it is

• Was after it in the first place

• Can use it

If (for instance) an employee leaves his or her laptop in the back of a car in plain view and later finds it gone, it's regrettable but not all that surprising. It doesn't necessarily mean that an e-criminal has been stalking this individual.

Tip

For every $1 spent today preventing bad things happening, you will spend $10 fixing the immediate problem and $100 shoring up the long-term issue.

Global organizations and government agencies require more than network security ...