Interop: The Scary Business of Data Privacy

With Interop taking place in the very unreal city of Las Vegas, it's easy to forget that a smaller business has anything to worry about. But the issue of privacy and database breaches is not only very real, apparently it's getting more and more real every day.One of the sessions I attended at Interop was hosted by Voltage Security. Its customers are very much not smaller businesses  they include Eastman Kodak and ING Canada  but the information that was provided was sobering and facts that smaller businesses need to know.

Among the stats that were thrown out was the fact that there were 109 million phishing incidents in 2006 in businesses, which represents a 100 percent increase over 2005. Also, 38 states in the US have enacted data breach disclosure laws and there is legislation pending in Washington. The PCIDSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is driving a lot of the data protection initiatives so any smaller business that does business with credit cards on its Web site is going to have to ensure that their data protection measures are up to snuff.

Perhaps most significantly, the presenter said this: (I am paraphrasing here.) Everyone either has been a victim of a data base breach or will be -- but management has a hard time spending money on being proactive about this kind of security.

Smaller businesses are you thinking about how to protect your databases? Breaches don't only happen to companies like TJX. There are companies out there that have systems for smaller companies and there are ways that smaller businesses can be proactive

It's no fun to be reminded of the grim realities of running a smaller business in this city that is all about fun but that's the way it goes.