How to keep terrorists, hackers and other bad guys from stealing your data

July 16, 2013

The sheer volume of digital information that businesses produce and collect today offers a greater incentive than ever for hackers to break into private online communications and company files. Recent revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) successfully used digital snooping to foil real-world terrorist operations serves as a glowing reminder of life in the digital information age. The dramatic leak is also a somber reminder of the fragile nature of computer security. Even disregarding concerns over NSA surveillance, small businesses need to ask themselves if their IT infrastructure can withstand potential intrusion attempts from foreign governments or organizations with deep pockets and no qualms about hacking into their networks. One way to significantly increase your security may be to reduce your company’s reliance on third-party cloud providers. Given an inherent lack of oversight over external vendors, businesses have no viable means to accurately assess a particular cloud providers’ security posture or competence. Moreover, cloud services may make an appealing target for sweeping, state-sponsored hacking attempts by foreign governments. And these cloud service providers could conceivably be compelled to reveal information via a secret federal subpoena. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2044477/how-to-keep-terrorists-hackers-and-other-bad-guys-from-stealing-your-data.html#tk.rss_all