New IDC report calls for a fresh approach to data security

The International Data Corporation (IDC) is calling on enterprise to reconsider how they approach data and data security.

Despite huge increases in the amount invested on cyber defence by businesses in recent years, large-scale cyberattacks are still commonplace, causing devastation that has decimated the balance sheets of many organisations. IDC’s report attempts to look at why and how this can be solved. 

In partnership with ASX-listed technology firm Covata, IDC’s Is Data the New Endpoint? report proposes that organisations need to change how they think and view data itself as an endpoint, in order to improve how it can be secured.

It says: “Data is an asset that is increasing in value, created and stored in an ever-growing variety of devices. It is also increasing in volume, its value only realised by sharing – and only with those who are authorised to view it. And yet hackers are seemingly able to steal this data with ease from those that are unable to secure it sufficiently”.

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The report recommends organisations and their technology buyers: 

• Consider how and where the data is created, captured, transmitted and stored, and where the vulnerabilities are greatest along this value chain;
• Identify offerings that can secure that data at its earliest point of creation and throughout its life cycle, regardless of whether this is on- or off-premises;
• Realise that not all data is of the same value, and that value may differ from an internal (your own) and external (the hacker’s) point of view, and then apply the relevant levels of protection;
• Establish a process that can constantly evaluate this value based on impact to the business, impact of legislation and impact of new threats and vulnerabilities.

Co-author of the report, Simon Piff, Vice President, Security Practice for IDC Asia/Pacific, commented: “Strategies to protect data must evolve if we are going to successfully protect this valuable resource in the future. It’s clear from the almost constant barrage of headlines announcing the latest data breach that we are not able to secure this asset with the strategies we have used in the past.

“Perhaps by reconsidering our approach to how we think about data, we can create improved strategies to secure this increasingly valuable asset.”