Managing sensitive information online
By BRIAN BOYER; BRIAN BOYER | |
Proquest LLC |
In college, I took a class on IT risk management. The professor started the class off by explaining the difference between managing risk and eliminating risk. In business, he pointed out, there is only one way to eliminate risk: go out of business.
Since going out of business isn't an attractive offer for most companies, we might as well talk about managing risk.
The discussion on IT risks recently have revolved around a massive breach in privacy with
This has led to more than one nude celebrity photo being shared on the Internet. This massive attack on famous iCloud users has caused quite a concern about privacy and security on the Internet. Can we trust the Internet with our private information?
I want to separate using the Internet for personal purposes and using the Internet for business purposes. While businesses don't have nude photos of themselves, they do have confidential information such as financial reports or private consumer information like credit cards.
Depending on the type of business you are in, you may even have very sensitive customer data, such as health records, personal financial statements, legal contracts, etc. The difference is businesses have to have these information to operate. You would probably stop going to your doctor's office if they didn't keep records. As for personal use, you don't really need to take nude photos of yourself and save them online.
This brings me to a broader point about Internet security. Sensitive data should only be shared with those that absolutely need it. Does the accountant at the doctor's office need health records? No. It doesn't matter how trustworthy the accountant is, it creates an unnecessarily link in the chain that could be broken. The less people and places that information exists, the safer it is.
Furthermore, as a business, you should thoroughly vet the methods and products you use to share that sensitive information. How much control do you have over your email server? How much do you know about where the files are stored? What are the access controls to your payroll software? I could ask a million of these types of questions.
The scary thing about the iCloud nude photo hack was that it was done very easily. A Mashable (mashable.com) reporter was able to hack into her own iCloud account using software that cost a few hundred dollars and about 60 seconds. The amazing thing is that it took this long for a hack on
I also want to bring up an interesting point about the Internet and security. The question is often asked about how secure is the Internet. We see nude photos are leaked, credit card information is stolen, and websites are hacked. However, these types of breaches happen offline all the time.
There were plenty of bank robberies, privacy violations, and other security failures long before the Internet was even dreamed of. The Internet isn't inherently insecure. Human beings have been exploiting human mistakes since the beginning of time.
Managing sensitive information can be tricky. It is a great responsibility to handle customer data. Remember, there are risks to being in business. You can either manage them or go out of business. And as a consumer, don't trust
Or just stop taking nude photos of yourself.
Copyright: | (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |
Wordcount: | 618 |
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