Data protection Stupidty.
I’m getting quite worried about the amount of news items that I have seen recently which highlight security breaches due to laptop theft or missing CD’s in the post.
One of the most public is the HMRC data of 25 million records on non-encrypted media.
A number of security experts have mentioned the need for encryption and expensive software to limit what can be transferred via USB data storage.
I have a really simple solution; don’t store high risk data on mobile computers in the first place. There is no need to have this type of data stored on mobile computers.
Leave the data on a central server, where you have one central point to protect. Then provide an access window trough VPN and terminal services or Citrix, the data can be viewed.
This way if the laptop is stolen, no data is actually stored on the machine. The laptop is used to view documents rather than store documents. This would not have been possible until recently, Network bandwidth was limited and quite expense.
Now you can get up to 8mbps on a laptop with a 3G card for £15 per month. This is far cheaper than the expense of software solutions to protect stored data.
Don’t store sensitive data on laptop’s. View it instead.