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Posts Tagged ‘Advanced Encryption Standard’

Key findings from the Computer Theft survey

August 6th, 2010

: Image via Wikipedia

The main concern while running a business is keeping your computing devices like desktops, laptops etc. and their data secure. The portability offered by laptops, increases their chance of being stolen as people are constantly leaving them unattended at public places. Many a times these devices are left behind at restaurants, subways, coffee shops, airports etc. Although the insurance company may cover the hardware, the files and data on the machine may eventually be untraceable and forever lost.

Recently BSI carried out their 8^th Annual Computer Theft Survey in the United States. Here are the key findings from that survey:

More than 5.5 Million computers were stolen in the United States in the last 3 years.
More than half (58.7%) of the respondents have been a victim of computer theft in the last year.
According to FBI, 97% of unprotected computers (i.e. computers that do not use any data encryption software or computer security software) are never recovered.
68% of the devices stolen were laptops, followed by desktops (10%) & others like PDA’s, iphone etc. (22%)
67% of computer theft occurred while respondent was mobile (moving about),
91% of respondents did not use data encryption software to encrypt the proprietary data on their stolen device.
Average total replacement cost of each stolen computing device was $43,264.66.
71% of respondents reported downtime due to computer theft ranging from several days to more than a month.
Only 21% of those surveyed used extensive data protection like dedicated data encryption software, but about 70% did not use any safeguard or security protection at all.

These numbers are very similar to the numbers in the surveys done earlier on this issue, clearly indicating that people are not doing anything more to protect their data than they were doing earlier.

If you carefully analyze the survey data, you will notice that only 3% of stolen computing devices are recovered; even then only 9% people are using data encryption software to protect their data.

Encrypt your Data for peace of mind!

We spend huge sums to protect our internal networks, but forget that there are people carrying laptops that are connected to these internal networks. These laptops are equally vulnerable to theft & hacking. This fact has been highlighted in the survey, according to which 67% of computer thefts occurred when the respondent was outdoors.

By using laptop encryption software, we could have greatly enhanced the laptop security as there is no way that the information is compromised if the laptop is lost or stolen. A theft would simply be reduced to an insurance matter and cost of the hardware plus time to rebuild the laptop.

Secure your data using Alertsec

Alertsec Xpress offers computer security software from Check Point as a fully customizable and pre-packaged data encryption software solution. The AES encryption algorithm and extensive 3rd party certifications offer you security that is used by millions. Try it for free today.

Why Use Data Encryption? (brighthub.com)
Identity Theft in Laptops (socyberty.com)

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Posted in AlertSec Xpress, Data Protection

Tags: Advanced Encryption Standard business Cryptography Encryption Federal Bureau of Investigation file encryption security United States

Data Breach Incident at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital

May 29th, 2010

Cincinnati Children's Hospital (Alertsec Blog)

Through the medium of our blog, we’ve emphasized on several occassions that most of the laptops are stolen at work place, conference centers, hotel rooms, cars, airports and train stations. While it is impossible to prevent theft what we can certainly do is protect our data by using laptop encryption software.

Today we analyze another case, where use of computer security software like Alerstec Xpress could have prevented massive data loss. A laptop at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center containing more than 61,000 patient records was stolen. In an incident that happened a couple of months ago, the laptop was stolen from the hospital employee’s personal vehicle which was parked outside his home.

While the missing records were protected using password they were not encrypted.

According to the hospital spokesman, Jim Feuer, “The records on the computer contained some personal information about patients, including names, medical records numbers and services provided”.

Feuer stressed, though, that the records did not contain Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or telephone numbers.

Offcourse, the incident is clear violoation of the HIPAA and that is something about which even the hospital authorities are aware. The HIPAA clearly states that the protected health information (PHI) must be secured and should preferably use an encryption incase of digital data.

The Cincinnati.com website says that the hospital has contracted with ID Experts, a leading provider in data breach solutions, to help patients and families affected by the incident. Families will receive a year of identity protection at no cost.

Rightly so, Mr. Feur added, “We need to and are doing a better job of strengthening our encryption practices”.

How Alertsec Xpress Would Have Helped

First-of-all, there is no specific reason to have vital patient data on a laptop which is unencrypted and can be easily stolen. Secondly, the impact of this incident could have been greatly reduced if an encryption software was used as a security layer. By using encryption software, we could have greatly enhanced the laptop security as there is no way that the information is compromised if the laptop is lost or stolen. A theft would simply be reduced to an insurance matter and cost of the hardware plus time to rebuild the laptop. This is certainly a small price to pay compared to what happened in Cincinnati children’s hospital case.

Secure your data using Alertsec

Alertsec Xpress offers computer security software from Check Point as a fully customizable and pre-packaged data encryption software solution. The AES encryption algorithm and extensive 3rd party certifications offer you security that is used by millions. Try it for free today.