I agree “You can’t defend yourselves well if you don’t know what systems you have and where your data is,” and “OPM does not maintain a comprehensive inventory of servers, databases and network devices.”

We are seeing a number of common issues across recent data breaches, stealing our most sensitive data, and I think it is time to re-think our security approach and be more data-centric.

Ponemon Institute published an interesting survey related to the recent spate of high-profile cyber attacks. According to the survey database security was recommended by 49% of respondents, but the study found that organizations continue to allocate the bulk of their budget (40%) to network security and only 19% to database security.

Ponemon concluded that “This is often because organizations have traditionally spent money on network security and so it is earmarked in the budget and requires no further justification.”

Ulf Mattsson, CTO Protegrity