Backing into trouble
Marriot International announced this week that they'd misplaced backup tapes equating to the personal information of 206,000 time-share customers. The information included credit card numbers.
These stories are common. We've heard similar stories last year from SAIC and Choicepoint.
Has anyone come up with a better approach to backups yet? How about encypting the media prior to storage along with strict accountability for the tapes. It's hard to believe that people still don't realize the threat posed by backups, yet there it is.
I've long advocated that holding the Board of Directors of public corporations responsible for security would be the best approach. In most companies, the authority and responsibility rest in different individuals, diffusing the audit trail beyond recognition.
Posted on January 05, 2006
