Data — even if it is unclassified, can be a problem for our government or any organization– if it gets in the wrong hands in sufficient quantities. I was reminded of this fact while reading this article from Kevin G. Coleman on TMCnet.
According to the article:
Cyber attacks, hacking and systems compromises are all too frequent occurrences in a world that has become addicted to electronic information. Targeted attacks using advanced techniques combined with software application exploits have created the chink in our systems’ armor that cyber attackers need to go about their snooping and thievery without being detected. Once a computer is compromised, cyber attackers have nearly “at will” access to the massive amount of electronic data stored there. The term given this criminal act is data exfiltration. Data exfiltration refers to the unauthorized covert transfer of information out of a computer system.
As data levels continue to grow exponentially, the protection of this information becomes even more important. Remember, CIO stands for chief information officer — it is the information which needs protecting and many times protection of the computers is the focus of company officers when the protection of the data should be.
