Is High-Value Data Truly Secure?

“Unsure” or “not confident at all” were the responses given by 55 percent of IT users from around the world when asked if their organization’s files were being backed up, according to a survey performed by global data storage and information security company Imation.

In an announcement of the survey results yesterday (June 17), the company stated that while 70 percent of organizations surveyed have corporate policies governing where high-value data should be stored and 69 percent of the companies have a solution in place for storing this data, users still seem unsure about how secure this information really is.

“Data breaches in the news demonstrate the devastating effects of failing to properly identify and secure high-value data,” Christine Taylor, an analyst at Taneja Group, said in the release.

“Yet it’s clear from Imation’s survey that organizations aren’t confident their high-value data is protected. It’s not for lack of trying – companies do their best to safeguard critical information. But in our increasingly digital and mobile age, critical data is too often lost, corrupted or comprised. Businesses need the right tools right now, before they experience potentially catastrophic loss,” Taylor added.

A critical step in protecting proprietary data is first ensuring it is identified properly, Imation said.

“These results reinforce that there’s a tremendous need in the marketplace for data storage solutions that can simplify the identification, classification and ongoing management of increasing amounts of high-value data,” Imation Nexsan senior solutions marketing manager Abhik Mitra said. “We’ve also seen that there are tremendous cost savings that can be realized from distinguishing an organization’s most valuable data from the rest and storing and protecting all of the data on the appropriate storage solutions. It’s our mission to make this process as simple and efficient as possible, so organizations can be confident their most critical data is secure and spend more of their limited resources on other pressing business matters,” Mitra explained.

In a time where the average cost of a data breach continues to rise – reportedly topping $3.8 million in a recent study – the security of an organization’s data has become a priority.

Imation emphasized the importance of a company actively managing important data files while also protecting them from tampering, destruction, loss or leakage through their entire lifecycle. The more knowledge an organization has about its valuable data may assist in keeping it from falling into the wrong hands.

To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.