FiRe 2017: You are your data. Protect it

By Rainey Cornaby

Personal data is everywhere and the attack surface which can be hacked has become very large with the use of apps and cloud computing. In a conversation with Evan Anderson, CEO, INVNT/IP, Rob Loeb, Solution Architect at Micro Focus explained that individuals tend to look at data on a personal scale and forget where they put their information. For this reason, he stated personal data ends up in places like Azure, in the cloud, and on government computers maintained by people who do not have the same level of concern for the data security of individuals as those individuals do.

Additionally, hacking and leveraging this information has become a greater source of income for those living in developing nations. Hackers are currently focused on correlating your personal and financial data and leveraging them for profits.

“People think the new currency is bitcoin,” said Loeb. “The new currency is you.”

According to Loeb, firewall and code scanning are necessary measures, but ultimately inadequate to address the security concerns facing us today.

What then, is the solution to protect your data from threats at all levels? For adequate security today, Loeb argued the data of an individual must be encrypted.

“You literally have to do full stack protection,” Loeb said.

Traditionally this process was very resource heavy but with the advent of new methods and faster computers, encryption can be performed with fewer resources.

“When you translate the data the data is you,” Loeb said.

He ended by emphasizing the importance of implementing this solution.