So, now you decide to encrypt data
April 1, 2010 by Steve HannafordPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Security
Here’s a tip for better information security: Encrypt sensitive mobile data before an employee loses it.
According to a recent newspaper story:
“Zurich Insurance plc (ZIP) has promised to improve its information security after losing personal financial information on 46,000 British clients through careless handling of unencrypted backup tapes.”
Apparently, a magnetic tape with a whole pile of critical information on insurance claims and claimers was somehow misplaced while being transported from a company office to a storage repository. Oops!
So far, no actual criminal use of any of this information has been discovered. But the key issue is that the data on the tape was totally unencrypted! Worse yet, the loss of the tape wasn’t reported by the company for a year.
The company just now has decided it will pay attention to security. In a report mandated by the UK Data Protection Act, it announced that “where any future movement of back-up tapes containing personal data is required, ZIP UK will ensure that appropriate data security procedures, including the use of encryption where appropriate, are in place.”
Closing the barn door after the horses escape, once again. And at least there will be an attempt, “where appropriate,” to encrypt personal info about its clients.
Here’s a multibillion company tossing around its main asset — data — as if were moving old furniture. It’s hard to imagine how a company that has the budget couldn’t at least encrypt data before tossing it in the back of truck.
The lesson here is that if big companies with mega-IT budgets can screw this up, smaller companies without these resources need to review carefully what they are doing to protect their own data.
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Tags: data breach, encrypytion, Zurich Insurance
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