Two-fer Thursday!

It is rare that we see two security and data breach related reports cause a stir on the same day. However, today Forrester and lesser known Risk Based Security Inc. delivered two reports with a similar theme -- data breaches can and will affect you personally as well as your organization.


Forrester reports that in a questionnaire distributed to 2,300 IT executives via LinkedIn 25% responded that their organization has had a data breach in the last year. Even more surprising, 21% declined to answer despite being assured that names and responses are kept confidential. 7% of very honest IT executives reported that they don't know and Forrester believes that many of the remaining who reported no breaches in the last year, were probably breached but just don't know it yet.


The above findings by Forrester make this second report more understandable but no less shocking. According to Risk Based Security Inc. and research done by the Open Security Foundation as of October 2011 there have been over 1 billion records exposed. In the first nine months of 2011 we have seen  176,385,870 records exposed compared to 88,473,589 records for all of 2010.


All of these statistics server to prove a point that organizations still are not taking the necessary measures to protect their data and the data of their customers and clients. When it comes to securing your organization taking a holistic approach is the first step to enforcing better protection. By better understanding business needs and processes your security department can better determine where risks reside. Security is more than a simple technology solution. Aligning IT security with business needs requires a combination of policies, people and enforcement.


Links to the above reports
Forrester
Risk Based Security Inc.