Oops! Data Leaks Are Not Just An American Problem

Data breaches are embarrassing, painful, and costly — no matter where your organization resides. The UK tax agency, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), has recently discovered this firsthand, after losing 25 million UK citizens' personally identifiable information. Despite well-written policies and good intentions, similar breaches could happen in most European organizations today. Enterprises risk losing customer confidence, reputation, and shareholder value, and the impact of an extensive leak of corporate data could result in losses of similarly epic proportions for their business. Data-centric security and data leak prevention (DLP) technologies don't fix inherently broken processes and eliminate human error, but they do ultimately enable enterprises to better safeguard their information assets based on policies and risk. Ultimately, the HMRC breach — and the others that will undoubtedly follow — will boost European and global enterprise interest in a DLP and data-centric security approach.