Mobile and network data security: threats and strategies evolving with technology.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: TELECOM & TECHNOLOGY

As data security threats evolve with the expanded use of technology, Alaska businesses are incorporating new strategies and solutions to protect their information--whether it's on a computer network or mobile device.

Data security is a broad issue that involves the actions companies and individuals take to prevent corruption, loss, and unauthorized access of their information assets. These assets could include the personal information of customers, employees, and business partners, as well as strategic corporate initiatives or proprietary information like health records and financial information. "Protecting the confidentiality, integrity, availability, and authenticity of information assets is critical," says Anand Vadapalli, president and CEO of Alaska Communications.

However, data security isn't a single action or single undertaking, according to AT&T Sales Director-Security Solutions Terry Hect. Data security is the holistic effort that is utilized to provide an acceptable level of assurance that information or systems remain confidential and unchanged. To adequately protect data, businesses must ensure their information remains private and unaltered. "If bad actors have an objective to impact the operations of an organization, they can steal, expose, change, or destroy your data," Hect explains. "Lost data is a risk, but I wouldn't classify it as a 'security issue' unless the data is 'found' and used/stolen."

Latest Threats to Security

One of the biggest threats to any business or organization is a "distributed denial of service" attack, Hect says. This attack uses multiple endpoints to bombard the business with so much traffic that it overwhelms the capacity of service, system, or computer network, rendering the network useless. "These attacks can be politically, socially, or criminally motivated," he says. "The primary way to stop the attack is to move the mitigation to the network provider or other security solution that can redirect and scrub the traffic before it impacts the local asset."

Mobile security threats are exploding, partly due to the use of open source applications that allow malicious malware to be easily distributed. The impact of threats through mobile devices is just beginning, and it will increase as businesses continue to mobilize their workforce. However, there's no simple solution to the problem. "We have MDM [mobile device management] tools combined with security features/functions that help, but unfortunately...