Today, January 28th, is national Data Privacy Day. If the purpose of this day is to raise the level of awareness and a call to action by consumers and businesses alike, then we still have a long road to build. Most people realize that their personally identifiable information (i.e. name, address, social security number, etc.) is constantly coming under attack from individuals who want to commit some sort of fraud, but they don’t realize that other pieces of information are equally under attack. This includes all kinds of mission-critical information like customer sales lists, accounts receivable, and other trade secrets that a business relies upon to ensure long-term viability. The response by most businesses has been inadequate at best, and this can mostly be attributed to the fact that there is little guidance for corporate fiduciaries to follow. The elephant in the room is that cyberattacks are more common than most organization’s would want you to believe, but how do you eat an elephant? I suggest businesses do it one bite at a time.
Today, The New York Times reported that the Center for Strategic and International Studies released a Survey which said "attacks on the Internet pose a growing threat to the energy and communication systems that underlie modern society." The article went on to report that "[m]ore than half of the executives called their own nation’s laws inadequate for deterring cyberattacks. Half identified the United States as one of the three most vulnerable countries; the others were China and Russia. Moreover, the United States was identified most frequently as a potential source of cyberattacks." With the increased reliance on the Internet to build corporate systems because of cost savings and scalability (as opposed to the old days of private network infrastructures), the potential for a "D-Day" cyberattack is growing to the point that most executives interviewed in the report feel it will occur within the next year.
To read more about this report, please click here: Study Finds Growing Fear of Cyberattacks
To learn more about Data Privacy Day, please click here: Data Privacy Day 2010