Friday, June 12, 2015

Jason Atchley : Data Security : 3 Signs it is Time to Update your Security Policies

jason atchley

3 Signs it’s Time to Update your Security Policies

Source: Flickr user @carbonnycIn her mid-60s, Diana Nyad swam 110 miles from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida. The firsttime she tried to complete the task, she was 28 and the year was 1978. At this year’s RSA Conference in San Francisco, I got the chance to hear Nyad’s firsthand account of these experiences, as well as her take on the mental stamina they demanded. What does data security have to do with long-distance swimming? Both require an intense amount of perseverance. However, as Nyad reminded our audience of IT and security professionals, when you have an important goal in mind, there’s no reason you should let anything stand in your way.
If you have a nagging feeling that your security plans are in need of an update, you’re not alone, and it’s not too late to get started. Consider the below three warning signs.
1. If a threat breaches your perimeter, all bets are off.
Most companies have no idea what kind of data they’re storing, or where it’s living within their IT environment. This means that security solutions that only focus on your perimeter can expose your most critical information unless they’re paired with data-aware tools that can secure and protect information at its core.
2. You’re waiting for change, not proactively making it happen.
Incremental and iterative changes aren’t enough to help your company pull ahead of the constantly shifting threat landscape. The answer to your security issues may not work for your industry peers, or you may need to build out a comprehensive strategy that takes multiple tools into account. So, what’s the best way to approach this action? Be courageous. Pilot new products and ideas, and resist slow or overly cautious implementations. Don’t just make changes in your go-to security issue responses; think bigger and start updating your team’s strategy behind its approach to chronic security challenges.
3. You’re not thinking in terms of the big picture.
As you get educated about the tools and technologies available in today’s security market, it’s important to get granular, think outside the box and give your entire environment a chance to contribute. Security strategies need data-driven insights to become intelligent, so you need full visibility into your network in order to inform your initiatives. The big picture is telling us that the security status quo isn’t working. To remedy this, bring your storage, networks, servers, applications and firewalls on board and see what they have to offer.
The major sessions at RSA had a lot of overlap in terms of their messages and overall takeaways. Today’s security issues are pervasive, and companies need to start making radical changes. Don’t get hung up on industry changes or cautious actions. The threats will still be out there, and they’re growing – in the long run, any movement toward your security goals will be more beneficial than treading water.
Start enhancing security for your company by evaluating the use cases where data-aware storage can help.

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