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Guest post written by Erin Nealy Cox

Erin Nealy Cox is Executive Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel of Stroz Friedberg, a digital risk management firm.

Perhaps you saw a few headlines about data security in 2011. The stories were hard to miss. State-sponsored groups compromising impenetrable security networks. Hackers widening their sights and finding soft targets in small- and medium-sized businesses. Hacktivists targeting companies for philosophical reasons rather than capital gain. What can we expect in 2012? Almost certainly more of the same.

Here are my predictions for data security in 2012:

• More Big Data heists. More small-business losses:

If the steady annual increases over the last 10 years are any indication, companies that should know better will still be making embarrassing disclosures about network intrusions that went undetected too long. In 2011 alone, three data breaches were large enough to join the ranks of the Top 10 largest hacking incidents of all time, and those are just the cases we know about.

The first big breach of 2012 is almost certainly underway already somewhere; the size of the losses will depend on how soon the intrusion is noticed and whether the company knows what is and who is on its system and what may have been compromised. Even simple mistakes can lead to big-time consequences because we know that somewhere out there, a manager has left a laptop with unencrypted data in her car. When it disappears in a simple car burglary, her company will begin the long and financially painful process of determining what was on the hard drive and sending disclosures to the affected individuals.

Even more so than today, hacktivism will become a weapon of choice for activists and protestors with philosophical differences with corporate America. More corporations that are part of public or political debates will see their data perimeters tested by those seeking to uncover embarrassing internal records.

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Guest Post Written by Security Seer Erin Nealy Cox for Forbes

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Conclusion

My hope for 2012 is that we’ll reach a tipping point in which businesses of all sizes will come to the realization that a costly data breach is not a question of `if’ but `when’ and take steps to get a handle on data protection plans to prevent, rather than simply responding to, the next big event. That’s gradually occurring, but too often it takes a costly or embarrassing network disruption to create the kind of institutional behavior changes that are needed.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/01/16/2012-data-security-trends-a-look-at-the-risks-ahead/

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