Mohammad Mobasseri
Protecting your business’ information from internal or external threats will dictate whether or not you succeed, suggests Mohammad Mobasseri.
“Digital information can be manipulated and disseminated very easily”
-Mohammad Mobasseri, Senior Manager, Comguard FZ-LLC Development in information communication technologies has brought about an accelerated information explosion and huge change in how information is being produced, processed, stored and communicated. Information is now being made available in digital format accessed via electronic networks such as the Internet, and being stored or preserved in digital archives. In addition, digital information can be manipulated and disseminated very easily. Such forms of development have resulted in major concerns in the protection of digital information sources. We will examine some key trends we are witnessing today and challenges organisations are facing to protect information from being stolen, disseminated inappropriately or misused. We will explore how technology can help secure information, and how industry has been benefiting from the security tools, standardised policies and practices.
The utility of security tools
We will examine the utility of several cutting edge technology tools like Data Auditing & Protection (DAP), Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) and End Point security implementation and understand how they can help protect or prevent data theft. DLP is a cutting edge technology that monitors and prevents known content from leaving the edge of the enterprise via emails, web, or IM-type applications. Newer versions of DLP have also started monitoring desktops and laptops to understand the type of data stored and track its movement to the edge. In contrast, DAP is a data centre technology that monitors how data stored in databases and fileservers is being accessed, to track and alert on data breaches. Data auditing is helpful for monitoring and detecting when data breaches result in a loss or theft – mostly from critical databases that house customer or financial data. Data leak prevention monitors confidential data leaving enterprises, typically via email. For most enterprises, both technologies are needed, but it is worth examining the relative value of the technologies.
DAP can understand when a user accesses and retrieves sensitive content from the source such as a database. DLP can monitor when the content leaves the enterprise, for example when the user emails the content from his/her PC. In most of the recent data theft incidents, data theft did not happen via email leakage but by users who hacked into the database or had credentials to access the database. Such users could then carry out the data via disks, tapes, or PCs. DLP cannot solve this problem effectively since it may not have visibility into how data was accessed. DAP is intended to address this visibility hole. Additionally, financial or credit card compliance regulations require visibility and auditing at the stored data level – a capability provided naturally by data auditing.
Future trends
Success in business will also be defined by ability to protect business information despite volatile situations posed either by internal or external threats. Our consultancy teams often report that non-adherence to compliance standards is a niggling issue. In most instances, there is little we can do, as compliance standards are not yet mandatory in some organisations that we consult with. We are making an effort to create awareness. I am sure that internationally accepted standards will soon be making its way into several work spaces across the middle East region.
Mohammad Mobasseri is the Senior Manager at Comguard FZ-LLC. He has more than 15 years’experience of high-technology in IT Security for consumer and enterprise experience, holding key positions at several start-ups in ME being Business Unit Director.
