Cyberattacks are up all over the world. Hackers are attacking our critical infrastructure and stealing our data. Why is our data so valuable, how have we gotten into this predicament, and how can we get out of it? According to Dr. Chase Cunningham, “An enterprise can realize and leverage the value of its data only if those data are effectively protected. If data are not defended in a manner that negates their value to an attacker, then the strategic approach to security is a failure and the business value is at risk.”
There is real insight in this statement. How can your organization protect its data? Obviously, your organization cannot change the world or eliminate hackers, so what can you do? ISACA seeks to address this significant problem of our time with unconventional thinking. ISACA has released the white paper “Defending Data Smartly” by Dr. Cunningham, who addresses this complex problem with a very elegant solution: “Defend your data in a manner so it negates the value of your data to attackers.” This white paper goes beyond just protecting your organization’s data—it also explores issues and solutions across information technology, compliance, privacy, governance and many other ISACA professional practices. This publication addresses four major themes that include:
- Reactive technology misses the target
- Compliant does not equal secure
- Privacy and security alignment
- Strategic approach to problem solving
These themes explore how we got where we are, why we are here and how to fix it. The white paper contends it is the people and businesses that have not dealt with our changing world that have caused the current predicament, and that an organization must seek a risk-based approach that aims to protect an organization’s most critical data through a combination of strategy, governance, technical systems and internal processes. There are no easy solutions to this problem, but there are solutions tailored to your organization that can combine technology and strategy to defend your organization’s data.
This white paper details how technology or processes alone cannot counter the continually changing and sophisticated threat landscape. It also analyses how past technologies failed and how the current technical systems, coupled with strategy and governance, can succeed. Dr. Cunningham is known as “Dr. Zero Trust.” He utilizes his knowledge and experience to outline how a properly configured and managed zero trust deployment can be the missing ingredient in a successful data protection plan.
Through this white paper, your organization will learn how to develop a strategy that negates the value of your data to an attacker and how to develop a path forward that leads to digital trust, utilizes proactive technology and protects the privacy and value of your organization’s data.
At the end of the day, your organization can only change what your organization controls, and your organization must control its valuable data.
