Layoffs are an unpleasant reality in a recession, and the occasional disgruntled employee is an unpleasant result of layoffs. In a recent McAfee survey, 42 percent of IT managers in large companies said the recession has made laid-off employees the biggest threat to their intellectual property and other sensitive data.1 In another recent survey, over half of security and IT professionals said internal threats to data are now greater than threats from the outside.2
| Insider vs. outsider threats IT managers and professionals… |
|---|
| 52%...are more worried about internal data leaks than external threats.3 |
| 44%…experienced insider abuse of computer systems last year.4 |
| 42%…think laid-off employees pose biggest risk to data.5 |
| 35% …expect stolen portable hardware will expose data.6 |
| 29% …predict employees will be caught snooping into restricted data.7 |
Data encryption has helped enterprises protect sensitive data for years, but encryption solutions are now getting easier to deploy and manage with fewer resources. That means you can add a necessary layer of protection to sensitive business data and keep privacy standards high, even in recessionData encryption has helped enterprises protect sensitive data for years, but encryption solutions are now getting easier to deploy and manage with fewer resources. That means you can add a necessary layer of protection to sensitive business data and keep privacy standards high, even in recession
Your organization likely encrypts data written to tape for long-term, off-site storage. But the increasing risk is that an employee will be tempted by valuable information stored within reach in the data center. For example, a list of credit card information from 10,000 customers could net a thief up to $250,000 on the black market—a lot of money, even in prosperous times.8
Most critical applications reside at the storage area network, or SAN level. The SAN provides a centralized framework for deploying, managing, and growing fabric-based data security solutions. So, the best thing you can do is encrypt data at the SAN level, before it writes to disk.
Today, that doesn’t require the costly, time-consuming process of taking systems offline and adding encryption services to each disk. The HP B-Series Encrypting SAN Switch is a simpler way to get strong data encryption without a hefty team of staff or even planned downtime.
After a simple, non-disruptive installation, you can encrypt data from any switch port without reconfiguring the fabric. No data rerouting, no need to purchase encryption-capable arrays. The result: A disk removed from the array and smuggled off-site by a disgruntled or desperate employee would be pretty much useless.
Your data is safely locked, and you have the keys to unlock it. But you need a way to store, retrieve and secure those keys. Sounds simple, but most businesses must track hundreds, maybe thousands, of active keys at a time. Just as important is an audit trail. With an audit trail, you can track a breach or prove that you've done everything required to prevent one.
HP StorageWorks Secure Key Manager is an automated, hardened security appliance. It provides identity-based access to the right people at the right time and logs up to two million keys, so you can trace who used what keys and when.
It even features high availability key replication, pick-resistant locks and tamper-evident seals. Furthermore, the Secure Key Manage isn’t limited to storing keys generated by the B-Series encryption switch; it can track and store all keys for HP ESL/EML tape libraries throughout the enterprise, automatically.
Because layoffs are affecting every business, the security threat posed by laid-off employees is real. It’s not only in your company’s best interest to prevent breaches, but it’s also often a legal requirement.
In a recession, valuable data suddenly seems even more valuable, but your business might have fewer eyes guarding the gates. The B-Series SAN Encryption Switch and Secure Key Manager not only encrypts data but also streamlines the processes for deploying and managing data encryption keys, saving resources and your peace of mind.
, accessed March 10, 2009. , accessed March 10, 2009, accessed March 17, 2009 , downloaded March 17, 2009 , accessed March 10, 2009. Highest estimated black market price of $25 multiplied by 10,000 = $25,000 