The Biggest Threat to Data Security, Is Us

We’ve heard a lot of talk recently about data breaches and high-tech hacking. Whether we’re talking credit card numbers at a store or the files on a political party’s hard drive, it seems that no data is secure these days, and thieves are running wild.

However, while we hear a lot about overseas hackers using sophisticated malware, the truth is that most of this hacking is decidedly low-tech.

Most data theft is simply the result of someone being careless: the office worker who tapes passwords under a desk drawer – or worse, uses “OOOO” as a password.

The weakness in your security, is us.

Whether it’s from laziness, technical ignorance, poor memory or simple password overload, most people are doing way too little to protect data.

We’re not using hard-to-crack passwords, and we’re not changing our passwords often enough.

Oftentimes, the data is lost due to someone printing it out, or simply losing a sensitive device.

A survey of compliance professionals conducted by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) and the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) found human error to be the main cause of data breaches.

While 17% of respondents reported a hacktivist or szhacker was responsible for a breach, lost device (20%) and lost paper files (45%) were far more likely to cause a breach.

So, as we make our New Year’s resolutions for 2017, let’s add “change passwords, be careful” to whatever else we’re resolving to do/not do.