Event

Concerned about data leakage

Websense’s Power Breakfast event held recently in Bangalore saw CIOs and CSOs mulling over the growing threat of enterprise data leakage says Abhinav Singh

Gene Hodges, Chief Executive Officer, Websense Inc answered queries on enterprise data leakage during the panel discussion

Participants interacted with Gene Hodges, CEO, Websense Inc during the power breakfast

It was a ‘Power Breakfast’ session with Indian CIOs and CSOs coming together to discuss the growing concern of enterprise data leakage prevention—both internal and external security threats over a high powered breakfast. The Power Breakfast event which was sponsored by Websense saw a healthy representation from CIOs and CSOs with varied experience of implementing security strategies in their respective organizations. The gathering had representation from organisations such as HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Vijaya Bank, Automotive Axles Limited, Orkla, HTMT Global Solutions Ltd, National Dairy Development Board, HCL Technologies, Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited and Cognizant Technology Solutions to name a few.

During the panel discussion concerns were raised about how security threats in a ‘connected world’ were bound to penetrate companies with ease. It was brought out that there had been a rise in the incidence of data theft—both internal and external. Additionally there had been accidental instances of data leakage—all too often the handiwork of a company’s own employees. It was emphasised at the discussion that in order to be foolproof, a proper security culture had to be imbibed and that employees should be trained in the basics of IT security. The gathering agreed that such a step could play an important role in preventing instances of data leakage. Vishal Salvi, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, Information Security Group, HDFC Bank pointed out that in a bank access controls on each and every transaction are needed. He said that access to the Internet needs to be restricted to employees in order to make the organisation more secure.

An important aspect pertaining to the usage of a company’s IT infrastructure by employees was also raised during the discussion. It was emphasized that organisations should frame security policies whereby they can restrict their workforce to use the company’s IT infrastructure for personal use. It was also pointed out by many that employees were having access to internal information and were accessing the same through personal devices such as personal notebooks and PDAs and the like. Many emphasised on the need to subject their employees to physical checks during their entry and exit.

Satish Das, Chief Security Officer, Cognizant Technology Solutions, said that end point security has been a key issue and a challenge as more and more personal devices by employees are intruding into the workplace. Das added that there should be an alert mechanism in place in an organization to access the level of data leakage that happens at any point. He said that thousands of employees in an organisation have access to e-mail and there is always a high risk that they forward sensitive company-related information to outsiders.

Gene Hodges, Chief Executive Officer, Websense Inc who addressed the gathering brought out an instance where Websense which had acquired a European company and was initially not allowed to view a list that contained employees’ numbers, job codes and the like. He said that the global environment had changed rapidly and it was the need of the hour for organizations to formulate policies for proper data classification and take steps towards data leakage prevention.

B G Shenoy, Head-Finance and IT, Orkla India Operations, stated that in India cyber laws were not mature enough to deal with cyber crime and that data theft was rampant, which needed to be addressed holistically. He added that there were few cyber crime police stations in India that can deal with this situation. There was a common consensus during the discussion that since new technologies had invaded the workplace the difficulties of the top management in dealing with security issues had also grown. This incidence was a cause of concern for some outsourcing companies who had critical customer data residing on their systems and if the outsourcing company does not maintain proper security parameters and regular audits they were bound to lose business. It was discussed that organisations need to equip and train people so that they are aware of security practices and can prevent data theft and service their customers better.

In addition to the discussion the event gave CIOs and CSOs a platform to interact with Websense team in India and also got to know how as to how solutions from Websense had the potential to mitigate the different security risks in their organisations. Val Souza, founding editor of Express Computer magazine, moderated the panel discussion.

abhinav.singh@expressindia.com