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Posted on May 31st, 2012 in Internet Safety, Spotlight by Simply Security | Be the first to comment | Tags: Internet Safety, Spotlight

CIOs rank employee behavior as a major risk to data security.

Recent advancements in information technology have allowed organizations around the world to improve efficiency and remain competitive with rival firms without exhausting too many financial or other resources. However, the way in which these new solutions are leveraged in the corporate atmosphere often leads to more vulnerabilities emerging in the network, which can potentially erupt in a business crisis.

According to a new study by international law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, data security and inappropriate employee behavior were ranked by Silicon Valley executives to be among the top threats that could lead to these crises.

"Crisis situations stemming from security breaches and employee actions are very real and companies should have a game plan in place to handle such events," Weil's Silicon Valley office managing partner Craig Adas said.

The study found that more than three-quarters of respondents said insider actions and data protection vulnerabilities that lead to information breaches were among the top two biggest threats. Product failures and lawsuits were also ranked among the top potentials that could lead to a business crisis.

The advent of social media has also introduced new fears in the enterprise, as inappropriate employee use of social networks could lead to an inadvertent breach of confidential information. While social media threats were ranked among the top eight concerns, fewer than two-thirds of respondents have a policy that limits the use of the resources during potential emergency situations, the law firm said.

Businesses need to develop new practices to mitigate risk in the advent of innovative technologies and services. This begins with assessing different types of data and determining which pieces are sensitive and which could potentially be thrown out, according to a Dark Reading report.

"Rule No. 1 in data breach prevention is that they can't steal it if you don't have it," Kroll Advisory Solutions Alan Brill said, according to Dark Reading. "It would be a lot better if people remembered that one."

While data can be an incredibly powerful resource for organizations, latent or unused information poses a giant risk that should not be neglected. Innovative storage solutions allow companies to harvest and cache massive volumes of information. Unfortunately, these databases often go unchecked and are left to the whims of malicious individuals.

Monitoring employee behavior, implementing governance and best practices policies and deploying robust data protection tools can be some of the best ways to prevent unnecessary information breaches from occurring.

Data Security News from SimplySecurity.com by Trend Micro