The advancements in technology have made things complicated instead of simplifying them. For instance, social media, mobile and cloud technologies have made it easier for cybercriminals to leak data effortlessly. Here is a look at some of the data breach statistics.

1. Protect Information and Ensure Compliance with Data Protection Solutions
The advancements in technology have made things complicated instead of simplifying them. For instance, social
media, mobile and cloud technologies have made it easier for cybercriminals to leak data effortlessly. Here is a
look at some of the data breach statistics.
Malicious or criminal attacks are the most expensive cause of data breaches and are on the rise. (2011
Cost of a Data Breach: United States, Ponemon Institute and Symantec)
Worldwide, approximately 1.1 million identities were exposed per breach, mainly owing to the large
number of identities breached through hacking attacks. (Internet Security Threat Report Volume 17,
Symantec)
Most data breach victims fell prey because they were found to possess an (often easily) exploitable
weakness rather than because they were pre-identified for attack; 79 percent of victims were targets of
opportunity, and 96 percent of attacks were not highly difficult. (2012 Data Breach Investigations Report
(DBIR), Verizon Business)
Total number of records containing sensitive personal information involved in security breaches in the
U.S. is 562,943,732 in 3,241 data breaches since January 2005. (A Chronology of Data Breaches, Privacy
Rights Clearinghouse, July 2012)
According to DataLossDB, there have so far been 469 data breach incidents in 2013 and there were 1,611
incidents in 2012. (DataLossDB, Open Security Foundation)
It no way means that technological advancements have brought only misfortune. The fact of the matter is that as
technology advances to make things easy, simpler and secure for the enterprises; the cyber criminals make use of
the very same technology to make things complicated and complex for the enterprises. In order to protect
sensitive information from flowing into the hands of the cyber criminals, the most popular solution has been to
deploy data loss prevention (DLP) and information rights management (IRM) technologies, but not many have
been successful in implementing them effectively. That is where enterprises need the help of service providers
adept in information risk management solutions. Their data protection solutions help enterprises to ensure
regulatory compliance as well as prevent the significant impact to business due to data loss.
For instance, a leading telecom company was able to reduce the number of false positives and ensure deterrence
and discipline in handling of sensitive data by collaborating with a best of the breed solution provider. Let’s see
how?
Though the telecom company implemented a leading DLP solution to protect sensitive data and to deter people
from leaking sensitive data, lack of a strong incident management process hampered the effectiveness of their
project. However, the scenario changed when the solution provider implemented a well-defined incident
management process as it helped the client to detect, analyze, escalate and close incidents to ensure deterrence
and compliance.
Thus a comprehensive data protection framework provides a complete offering that includes data classification,
data flow analysis, fine-tuning, consequence management and tools like data loss prevention (DLP), information
rights management to ensure effective data protection. Therefore, enterprises must seek the services of a best of
the breed service provider to ensure end-to-end protection of their sensitive information.
Read more on - risk management frameworks, identity access management, mobile security