Posts Tagged ‘information security’

New Information Systems Security Risks - Are Your Ready?

Friday, January 1st, 2010

Most of the business industries today are liable for information security risks. Protecting the information systems and their information from unauthorized access, modifications, destructions, disclosure disruption and use has therefore become a major aspect to be considered in any business. Since some terms in relation to information systems security share common goals of protecting information, they are incorrectly used and they do indeed have slight differences between each other. Regardless of the form the data may take which could be electronic, print or any other form for that matter, information systems security is concerned with the confidentiality, integrity and availability of its information systems. Protect your data - back it up!

In different cultures information systems security is viewed very differently but for the individual it has a significant impact on privacy. Gaining entry in to the feild of data protection is not so hard with the high demand and exposure in the field. A few such choices would be security testing, information systems, auditing, business continuity planning, digital forensics, securing networks and securing applications.

Confidentiality, integrity and availability are the three main features of an information system security. The prevention of disclosure or information to unauthorized individuals or systems is the property of the confidentiality principle. Breaches of confidentiality can take many forms but it is definitely a necessity for maintaining the privacy of people and the personal information a system may contain. Integrity or in another word prevention of updating of any information is another key aspect. Errors of a database management system sometimes could lead to false actions by a user, hence it is required to update and upgrade the system constantly. Technology used such as the networking methods and the database storage methods should have zero errors in order to implement a perfect information system security. Don’t lose your data, get it backed up online!

Another point to consider is that information system security must protect the information throughout its life span which means from the very beginning of its initial creation to the final clearance of it. Further more an information systems security should be able to work equally accurately while it is in action and while it is in rest.

With information security risks reaching a critical point, many firms have put their thoughts on stopping the crisis. Recognizing the value of information and clarifying the appropriate procedures as protection requirements is a very essential point of managing information systems security and its risk. Do you backup your data off site?

Security of your Business - Protect Your Data

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Information security risks have grown in with a rapid phase over the years that today organizations will have to take extreme measures about it. If an information security risk goes unnoticed, it can lead to reputational damage for the organization and severe financial regulatory. Controling the security level of highly important information therefore is deadly important.

Protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, disruption, disclosure, use or destruction is considered information security . There would be a bigger impact on the business than one would expect from a leakage of valuable information. Information security risk is the possibility of a threat trying to gain unauthorized access into an organizations information system. In order to protect the information assets, information security management processes have been put in place. Protect your data - back it up!

In an organization, not all information is equal therefore not all information requires the same degree of protection. An essential feature of information security risk management is to recognize how valuable the information is and apply appropriate procedures and protection requirements for the information.There should be a head or in other words an administrator for a database. Normalization and grading of the information will help to protect data according to its importance. Some common labels used by businesses today are public sensitive, private and confidential. Understanding of the required security controls and handling procedures for each classification of information is required by all the people attached to a specific database. Don’t lose your data, get it backed up online!

Due to the rapid change of risk factors information security risks are comparatively harder to handle. Costs are naturaly difficult to measure hence will go unnoticed. Even though the costs of hardware and software to build the controls may be estimated, it is impossible to account for the indirect costs such as the possible loss of productivity when new controls are implemented.To obtain better risk management, it is important that the companies get up to dated with the technology involved in information security risk. Do you backup your data off site?

How Data Backup Prevents you Losing Work

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Imagine you have spent hours working on a report or another vital piece of work that has to be submitted tomorrow.All of a sudden, your hard disk crashes and all of the hours that you have put into crafting that vital document were all for nothing.Whatever you do, don’t join the naive many who say “it will never happen to me!” as probability will dictate that if you don’t take action, one day it inevitably will.  So how can you prevent such a catastrophe occurring?  This is precisely what data backup is all about.

Storing data is often the most important part of computer usage as it can often take months or years to accumulate relevant information.  As technology becomes more reliable, the risk of losing information has been significantly reduced however it would be needless to lose documents due to lengths that you yourself could have taken to prevent such an occurence. 

There are several formats of media that will allow your data to be backed up up.  Commonly used devices are external hard drives, CDs, DVDs, USB drives and for more sensitive information there are companies and services which will provide you with secure online data backup.  Whenever you backup data to an external device, said device should be stored in a different location from the original computer in case a fire or local electrical surge should damage the data backup hardware.

Data backup is most useful when done constantly and within reason.For example - if you are spending a long time working on a lengthy document, you should not wait a significant amount of time before saving your work.You should consider the effort that it would take to redo the work since the last save in the case of a crash and make a judgement call as to how often you should save your work.