Protecting Data Privacy and Ensuring Data Security

News headlines about the increasing frequency of stolen information and identity theft have focused awareness on data security and privacy breaches—and their consequences. In response to this issue, regulations have been enacted around the world.

The number and variety of regulatory mandates are numerous, and they affect organizations around the globe. Some of the most prevalent mandates include: Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and the EU Data Privacy Directive. Along with the rising number of regulatory mandates is the increased pressure to show immediate compliance.

Enterprises are under tremendous time pressure and need to show immediate progress to the business and shareholders, or face reputation damage and stiff financial penalties. This pressure is exacerbated by new computing models such as virtualization and cloud computing. As organizations are aggressively adopting these new models, concerns about data security and privacy are very prevalent.

Organizations must take a holistic approach to protecting their information across the enterprise in physical, virtual and cloud infrastructures by:

• Understanding where sensitive data exists
• Safeguarding sensitive data in both structured and unstructured formats
• Protecting non-production environments
• Securing and continuously monitoring access to the data
• Demonstrating compliance to pass audits

IBM InfoSphere Optim and InfoSphere Guardium solutions for data security and privacy protect diverse data types across different locations throughout the enterprise, including the protection of structured and unstructured data in both production and non-production (development, test and training) environments. Such an approach can help focus limited resources without added processes or increased complexity. A holistic approach also helps organizations to demonstrate compliance without interrupting critical business processes or daily operations.

IBM InfoSphere solutions for data security and privacy support heterogeneous enterprise environments including all major databases, custom applications, ERP solutions and operating platforms. Read the InfoSphere Guardium virtualization and cloud solutions page for more details on how InfoSphere Guardium can help ensure data is protected in these new computing models.