Tuesday 17 April 2012

5 Methods to Avoid Data Loss, a Data Security Checklist

By Oliver David


Many financial institutions are making plans to meet their security needs in light of the high profile data breaches that have been front and center in the news. Each bank must make their own personalized plan, however there are some basic steps that can be taken to improve and increase overall data risk management.

Based on a study by the Ponemon Institute, criminal information breaches are on the rise, accounting for 31% of breaches in 2010 -- a seven-point improve from 2009. The institute also discovered that the typical organizational price of a information breach climbed to $7.two million in 2010, whilst the price per compromised record averaged $214. General, total breach expenses have grown each year because 2006.

One of the first things that any bank should undertake is to understand the data life cycle at the institution and at branches. Taking the time to investigate and identify how financial data is collected, how it is used, how it gets transmitted from one location to another, how it is stored and finally how it is destroyed. After this analysis, it is much easier to figure out where the holes or vulnerabilities are in the data chain.

The fundamental rule for managing sensitive monetary information would be to 1st determine in the event you require it, if not, then do not gather it. In the event you do require it, gather what you'll need after which manage and encrypt it. Following you no longer require it, then destroy it securely (whether or not digital, or paper).

Listed here are a couple of suggestions for securing bank information:

1. Protect bank waste. Yes, you do not wish to randomly throw out paper files. It's important to take the additional step of shredding paper files.

2. Identify sensitive data. Make sure supervisors know what type of data can be used by cyber thieves and that they know how to secure it.

3. Secure the ATM. All too often data hacks are placing unauthorized skimming devices and even small cameras near the ATMs in order to gain account numbers and pins.

4. Keep an eye out for unattended consumer information. Create a method to verify that consumer information is stored when workers are away from their desks, whether or not that's a policy that it should be locked up when not in use or that computer systems should be turned off when the employee is away from their desk.

5. Finally, wipe clean the memory on difficult drives. Make certain the memory is cleaned on all devices like copiers, computer systems, fax machines as well as mobile devices. Working with encrypted flash drives is a key way to avoid data loss.

The price of complacency is as well high to not take these as well as other actions to become particular monetary information doesn't wind up within the incorrect hands. This really is some thing that no monetary institution can afford in these digital occasions.




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