By Amy Townsend
Last week, on June 24th, Mercedes-Benz announced that the personal information of around 1,000 customers was accidentally made accessible on their cloud storage platform. The personal data included credit card information, driver’s license numbers, social security numbers, and self-reported credit scores.
Security should be the number one consideration when selecting data management options.
In this blog, I’ll discuss the importance of securing your company and customer data, and provide some tips on how to do so.
On June 24th, Mercedes-Benz announced that they accidentally leaked the personal information of around 1000 customers.
We’re Entering a New Era of Cyber Threats
Enterprise security is becoming increasingly important as cyber threats become more sophisticated and as new technologies are used in the workplace. We’re moving away from the era of using anti-virus as the primary way to stop attacks.
Not only should IT leaders be protecting the organization’s data against threats, but employees should be trained on prevention techniques as well. Especially in this age of remote work, where knowledge workers are no longer under close supervision of IT.
A proper data management strategy should be put in place and should be communicated across the enterprise.
Our VP of Research, Betsy Burton, gives a great overview of how to define an information strategy in her blog, ‘Increased Remote Work–Define Your Information Privacy Strategy’.
Cloud Considerations
The business environment has shifted to be digital, and it’s not going back. A side effect of operating in a digital workplace is the exponential amount of data production. Organizations must find secure and reliable ways to store this data – whether it be in a public cloud, private cloud, or a combination of both.
In our complimentary eBook, ‘5 Things CIOs & CTOs Should Consider When Building a Cloud Environment’, we outline the difference between public, hybrid, and private cloud environments, and when it’s appropriate to use each one.
When deciding on a cloud environment, building a framework that defines decision criteria for your cloud destination is important. A key factor to consider is the level of confidentiality for that data. In the Mercedes-Benz case, that customer data was extremely sensitive and should have been stored in a cloud environment that is highly protected.
Bottom Line
Enterprises need to put reliable and effective security measures in place to protect confidential data and information. Learn from the Mercedes-Benz situation, and be sure to check that your data is being managed appropriately. Especially the personal data of customers who trust that you’re taking proper care of their information.
To gauge where your security strategy needs improvement, download our complimentary security checklist.