Big Data = Big Risks

By slpowers on August 8, 2016 • ( 0 )

Big data describes the large volume of data – both structured and unstructured – that inundates a business on a day-to-day basis. Experts predict that digital data volumes will double every two years for the foreseeable future. Thanks to the continued drop in storage costs, an increasing number of companies are finding it easier to crunch their own data to help guide decisions on products, personnel, revenues, and business strategies.

Between March and April 2016, Gatepoint Research surveyed 100 senior decision makers in the CIO and CDO organizations of industry-leading enterprises to gain insights into their sensitive data security practices. And usual, security is an afterthought at best.

While 80% say their IT teams have access to sensitive data, another 40% say development and test teams also access that data. Another 29% say it is available to end users.

Although 62% say their companies have passed their audits, 11% have failed. Another 20% don’t know if they have failed an audit.

A full 73% say data security concerns thwart or delay initiatives frequently or sometimes.

While many have already implemented a wide range of security technologies, less than half (47%) are confident in their abilities to secure big data.

Two-fifths of respondents are ready to implement additional security for big data projects as part of an overall increase in IT security spending.

But don’t despair, security types. Because while the Big Data onslaught has introduced a host of new vulnerabilities (wider use of open-source code, for example, and new challenges in user authentication and access), the intel gleaned from a Big Data environment can actually enhance security, if analysts know how to mine it, and where to look. Improved and more complex pattern analysis, combined with information and analysis from multiple data sources can help. And the automatic consolidation and analysis of logs from multiple sources, rather than in isolation, raises the bar still further – a far cry from the old approach of ignoring logs until a security incident occurred.

Very few South Florida IT providers employ analysts who do nothing but security AND another team that does nothing but data analytics. In fact, we know of only one. Contact us today to find out more.