Data Breaches Hit Nearly Half of U.S. Companies in the Past Year

Treading on the heels of the Home Depot's announcement that 56 million credit and debit cards were jeopardized last week, new research shows that 43 percent of U.S. companies experienced a data breach in the past year. That’s a 10 percent increase from the previous year. 

The annual survey from the Ponemon Institute, released Wednesday, found that the size of these incidents is also on the rise. Despite the indications that breaches have become a way of life, companies remain ill-prepared to protect their data. "While more organizations have data breach preparedness on their radar and have developed a response plan, a majority of companies are not putting the support and resources behind having it truly be effective," Michael Bruemmer, vice president of Experian Data Breach Resolution, tells Fast Company.

The study calls employees the “weakest link” when it comes to vulnerability to hackers and suggests that companies develop and continuously update response plans for data breaches. 

(via Fast Company)

Public sector needs centralized CIO: For the federal government to transition its technology from 1960s era systems to 21st century capabilities, it needs a “rock star CIO.” That’s exactly what Vivek Kundra, the first federal CIO, wants to be called. Research from InformationWeek shows that the public sector needs a centralized CIO to guide overall strategy and pick the right people to implement policies. (via InformationWeek)

Data overload leads to bottlenecks: As volumes of data grow unabated, the amount of information can put strains on technology resources. These “data bottlenecks” make it more difficult and time-consuming for users to access the information they need. For companies to build storage systems for high performance, they’ll need to pinpoint where these bottlenecks can occur, says Thomas Pavel, EMEA storage sales director at Avago Technologies. (via TechRadar)

Couch-potato workers need data security, too: Working from home might sound awesome at first (pajamas and soap operas every day, anyone?), but the set up isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Employees don’t have IT support down the hall, for instance. Fortunately, technology helps them back up work from any location. (via BuzzFeed)

Image via Can Stock Photo