President Barack Obama has unveiled new proposals on how consumers' personal data is handled, including the requirement for firms to inform customers of data breaches within 30 days. He went on to say that identity theft and other cyber attacks were a "direct threat to the economic security" of Americans.
Ken Levine, CEO and President, Digital Guardian reacts: “Having a data breach notification law would accelerate the need for companies to invest in a better data security technology. It would ensure that companies have the correct policies and processes in place in order to identify and report if a breach has been attempted or successful. A focus from the country’s President and it being a top priority for him is a really encouraging step in the right direction.
“It’s very difficult to predict malicious behaviour, whether it’s from an insider or an outsider. This is why companies shouldn’t just focus on the user level, but on the data level. With the correct protection applied to the data itself, it doesn’t matter whether a disgruntled employee or a skilled hacker is trying to attack a business' data, as neither will be able to access it. Today, attacks against company data are inevitable, but losing sensitive data as a result is not.”