Commenting on a report from the US Inspector General’s office on the effects of BYOD (bring your own devices) on US military data security – and which found that military command was unaware of more than 14,000 mobile devices in active use across the US Army and 15 of 48 mobile devices did not require a password to access the device – Voltage Security says this is a classic example of what happens on the data security front in very large organisations.
According to Mark Bower, VP of Product Management with the data-centric security and stateless key management specialist, even in a highly controlled organisation the size of the US Army there are going to be operations where staff, for various reasons, ignore their corporate security mandates.
“And it is exactly the same in a large enterprise, as not only do you need security policies, but you need the technology in place to enforce those policies, and ensure the governance surrounding the data as it flows into, across and out of the organisation,” he said.
“This is where an effective data-centric security strategy enters the frame, as even in an organisation the size of the US Army with its 1.12 million personnel, there is a need to ensure that all of the data remains protected and private anywhere it moves, anywhere it resides, and however it is used,” he added.
“It is not exaggerating to say that the loss of data in today’s military could give the enemy an upper hand in a battlefield situation – as well as potentially resulting in unnecessary loss of lives. This takes the data protection aspect of security to a completely new level,” he added. “And let’s not forget, it just takes one email and attachment containing sensitive materials to fall into enemy hands to create a breach that’s difficult to contain – the stakes are high.”
For more on Voltage Security: www.voltage.com
Speak Your Mind