Introduction
Thanks for picking up this Quick Guide. Maybe you head information security at your organization. Maybe you help set your company’s data governance policy. Maybe you work with partners and suppliers and worry about protecting the wider data supply chain. In any case, you are seeking insight into how your data protection regime can be more efficient and effective.
As cybersecurity professionals, we share the somewhat unfortunate job of trying to protect our network and data assets from cyber-attack. One can rightly argue that cybersecurity is the most intellectually demanding profession on the planet. The rate of change is so great that no challenge is ever solved, no problem ever resolved completely. That said; security failures more often result from a lack of direction and focus, not of a lack of skills or resources. The press loves to report our failures – so this increased scrutiny requires of security professionals our best effort.
Security industry legend Dan Geer argues that there are five misconceptions common to many data protection programs that are in actuality retarding these efforts. These five “myths” were selected because they address pain points common to many organizations … maybe even yours. Successfully addressing them will give you and your ongoing protection regime reasonable assurance of some quick wins.
In reviewing this list, continue to ask yourself how to apply the advice to your organization and your unique cybersecurity ecosystem. The myths endeavor to challenge you a bit on how you think about the difficulties we all face.