Johannesburg, 23 Feb 2016
Security concerns loom in today's complex, ever-changing environment, with employees seeking mobile convenience and organisations trying to ensure that these demands do not compromise security. Several IT policies and practices are being pushed to the limits with the escalation of security threats and the resulting requirements for greater compliance.
According to the Global State of Information Security Survey 2016 Report, there has been an increase in the theft of sensitive and confidential data. The report uncovers a multitude of significant areas around how companies are trying to protect their data, and the most prominent data security challenges facing business IT in the year 2015 - 2016. These facts alone should encourage every company to tighten its data security policies and capabilities.
Data Security is the main priority for organisations of all sizes. There is no doubt that big data security is one of the key pillars of making big data ready for analytical success. Successful organisations are moving beyond traditional and superficial approaches to security to focus on more intelligent and metadata driven approaches to data security. By leveraging a systematic understanding of big data, enterprises can more holistically improve their big data security positions and ensure big data remains an asset, and not a liability.
One of the major issues with big data is the rate at which it is growing and volumes of data that are being added each day. Although detection technologies and threat intelligence sharing are improving in many cases, many businesses are still not able to prevent a breach, which is something that can have huge legal and financial consequences as well as a significant loss of customer trust and reputation.
Martyn Healy, Director at Blue Turtle states that: "When it comes to matters related to security, the African continent as an emerging market is a target and as the use of big data analytics increases, the range of data sources will spread. One of the key messages that I would like to get across is that big data analytics is not just about log analysis; it is about seeing a wider picture. In order to balance the business benefits of big data analytics with the cost of storage, organizations need to regularly review the data that they are collecting, why and for how long they need it, and where and how they store it. Approaching data differently ensures that organizations ultimately protect their sensitive data and will go on to achieve their compliance objectives."
Resources
The Global State of Information Security Survey 2016: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/cyber-security/information-security-survey/download.html
The 2015 Internet Security Threat Report: https://know.elq.symantec.com/LP=1542
Data Threat Report: http://www.vormetric.com/campaigns/datasheet/2016/
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