Data Protection

We are using the Internet to have remote data storage, we are sending emails to communicate, buy online goods, register with loyalty cards and a lot more, we have our personal information and sensitive data stored in governmental and non governmental organizations and those organizations are exposed to the Internet as well, having all that It is impossible to protect our personal data, in addition to Internet connection, person working in those organizations may use our data or send it to someone who is interested in our data.

There are guidelines and best practices we have to follow to minimize threat and protect our data, Schuster in 2006 based on an incident happened with him, he wrote an article in which he describes the incident and proposed guidelines to follow by IT professionals and IT non professionals to protect our personal data, by using personal firewalls, any viruses, patching devices we use to connect to the Internet, use not easy to remember passwords and other practices, as well he mentioned that those practices should be revised and updated. We need to know which data is most important and protect it.  But still even with those practices we cannot guarantee our privacy and protection of our data, this will only minimize the risk.

In addition to self-awareness and following best practices we have to be aware that our data are held in places other than our personal computers, our medical history and personal and sensitive data are stored by other organizations, are they safe? Who have access to them? Protecting this kind of data is not under our control, it should be the responsibility of the organization holding our data, and they have to use expensive firewalls, do proper data archiving, insure our data safety and privacy, by not giving access to anyone except the person who is allowed to have access to them and data encryption. Markets and organizations will not be able to protect data from leakage; however they can secure the data by encrypting it. Stanley in 2009 in his article said that organizations should review their data leakage and encryption strategies as a combined solution to protect data, and continued as organizations should work with IT vendors to provide encryption solutions and tested to suit the need.

Its not an easy task nor cheap to protect data, even rich people cannot for sure protect their data, rich people are targeted more than poor people because of their wealth. They are able to buy more expensive security devices and better software and hardware to secure their data, but still their personal data might be somewhere where they don’t have control over and a leak might happen, but their chances to secure a re better than others.

References:

Romanosky, S, & Acquisti, A. (2009), 'PRIVACY COSTS AND PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION: ECONOMIC AND LEGAL PERSPECTIVES', Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 24, 3, pp. 1061-1101, [Online], Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=15&sid=00f00cfd-2b76-48d6-8a13-821fc48b1f5a%40sessionmgr114&vid=2

 (Accessed 12 March 2011)

Schuster, S., (2006), ‘Why Can’t We Protect Our Data?’ [Online], Available from: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM06516.pdf (Accessed 12 March 2011)

Stanley, N. (2009), ‘Enterprise Data Protection - A Market Update from Bloor Research’ [Online], Available from: http://www.it-director.com/business/security/content.php?cid=11167 (Accessed 12 March 2011)