Don’t Let a Data Breach Affect Your Bottom Line: The Benefits of Securing Your Corporate IT Data

Don Miller

Homeland Security deemed November 2014 “Critical Infrastructure Security & Resilience Month.” This initiative was targeted at both individuals and corporate America, with the goal being to help generate awareness about the importance of securing the assets, systems and networks that we all count on every day.

As a follow-up to Critical Infrastructure Security & Resilience Month, we want to update our MFT Nation readers on how securing their corporate IT data can help their organizations improve the bottom line. It seems every week we hear and read about new data or security breaches. The impact a breach can have on a business of any size could be devastating, with the consequences including financial and reputational risks ranging from significant to catastrophic.

The Cost of Data Breaches

According to the Ponemom Institute, an independent research group that writes about privacy, data protection and information security policy, data breaches cost companies millions of dollars every year. Their latest study, released in May 2014 called “Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Study, revealed:

  1. “The average total cost of a data breach for the companies increased 15 percent to $3.5 million. The average cost paid for each lost or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information increased more than 9 percent from $136 in 2013 to $145.”

  1. “The ideal amount to invest over the next 12 months to execute their organization’s security strategy averages $14 million. However, in the next 12-month period, companies anticipate having an average of about half that amount, or $7 million.

  1. “Strategies to protect online presence, information assets and infrastructure do not exist for most of the companies represented in this research. As discussed above, the budget to execute their organization’s security strategy and mission is far less than what they believe is needed and could explain these findings.”

What Can You Do to Help Prevent a Data Breach?

What seems to be lacking by a majority of companies participating in the Pomenon Institute study is the one thing all companies should have–a security strategy. A security strategy will help companies evaluate what technologies, processes and compliance mandates they need to address with the end goal being a reliable and secure IT infrastructure.

In October 2013, we posted a blog called Creating a Strategic Infrastructure which discussed the importance for organizations to review their existing strategic infrastructure with the end-goal being to help them “consolidate and converge” existing solutions to help improve operational efficiency and scalability. With the increasing volume and sophistication of data security threats, enterprises need to remain vigilant about updating their security strategies and implementing a secure strategic infrastructure.

Technology to Help Solve Data Security Exposure

Data security is an ongoing concern for organizations of all sizes, and will only become more critical in the future. If your company transfers sensitive data and files, you need to understand the risks involved and know how to proactively reduce those risks. The need for companies to deploy a secure managed file transfer solution is one of the best ways to strengthen the file transfer process. Below is a list of some of the benefits from implementing a secure managed file transfer solution:

  1. Data Security, Privacy and Protection

Organizations using a managed file transfer solutions can be assured that a high level of data security exists for all type of file transfers, whether internal, external or ad-hoc. With a single point of access, you have control over your data, where it goes, how well it is secured while in transit, with notification at every step. A good managed file transfer application offers many layers of protection. You can encrypt your files; sign the files digitally so that the receiver knows they are from you and have not been altered in transit; securely connect to your trading partner; and finally, only allow the intended receiver to decrypt them.

  1. Minimizes File Transfer Costs

Organizations can minimize file transfer costs by implementing a scalable managed file transfer solution that can handle increasing volumes and provide improved security, reporting and responsiveness to changing business and technology conditions. With a single integrated interface, you have complete control over all aspects of the solution, thereby allowing your staff to easily manage even the largest trading community

  1. Helps Meet Governance, Risk and Compliance Mandates

Many organizations have stringent data processing rules in place to help them meet governance, risk and compliance mandates. Organizations can use a managed file transfer solution to consolidate the management of data transfers in a single, centralized system with automated visibility, management, auditing and reporting. Below are some key features and functionality to help meet governance, risk and compliance mandates:

  • Dashboards and Reports (real-time monitoring)
  • Auditing and tracking of messages
  • Alerts and notifications
  • Authorization (system access based on identity)
  • Archiving and purging (active logging)
  • Support for multi-tiered networks; DMZ and internal network components
  • Compliance with secure protocol standards
  • Cross-platform compression, encryption and authentication
  • Secure email
  1. Improved Application-To-Application Integration

Managed file transfer software has been used by organizations to connect dissimilar applications because of its reliable and easy to use structure. This is an important feature since so many processes depend on file transfer, both within and outside the enterprise.

bTrade Can Help You Secure Your Data

bTrade is a pioneer in the data security and secure managed file transfer fields, so please contact us at info@btrade.com if you want our data security experts to analyze your infrastructure to determine how best to protect your valuable and confidential data.