Sharp Ideas

The crime of data theft is one of the most under-reported and difficult to detect crimes of the 21st century.

Data is the currency of the information age. Hackers, spammers, and other computer criminals are in a constant arms race with security professionals as they seek to find new ways to steal information. As the amount of digital information increases every year, it becomes increasingly difficult to prevent its unauthorized disclosure.

John McCumber, a very seasoned information security professional, once shared with me that at a minimum, the essential steps to safeguarding information include at least five steps:

• Identify what information resources you have
• Prioritize your information resources in terms of business significance
• Determine the “states” in which you must protect the information (storage, transmission, processing)
• Implement security countermeasures that reduce your residual leve of risk to an acceptable level
• Re-evaluate your resources and corresponding countermeasures over time

Information security is as much art as it is science. As a community resource, I’ve decided to post major stories related to data theft to raise awareness of the frequency and variety of data theft.