Data Exfiltration

Organizations are beginning to recognize the value of their data. Many have now gone as far as to assign a monetary value to their data and treat data as an asset. An article published by Computer World stated that in one three year period of time Fortune 1,000 companies saw their data grow on average from 190TB to 1 petabyte (1 million gigabytes). In that same article, the data at 9,000 American midsize companies grew from 2TB to 100TB. So what does that mean globally? Research and analysis suggests that by 2010 global data will grow to an estimated 988 exabytes (nearly 1 zettabyte). That is a massive amount of data and in all truthfulness the value of the data is incalculable.

 

Cyber attacks, hacking and systems compromises are all too frequent occurrences in a world that has become addicted to electronic information. Targeted attacks using advanced techniques combined with software application exploits have created the chink in our systems’ armor that cyber attackers need to go about their snooping and thievery without being detected. Once a computer is compromised, cyber attackers have nearly “at will” access to the massive amount of electronic data stored there. The term given this criminal act is data exfiltration. Data exfiltration refers to the unauthorized covert transfer of information out of a computer system.

 

So how dangerous is data exfiltration? Paul Kurtz, a former White House cyber-security adviser said that even unclassified data, if stolen in large enough quantities, could provide important clues about U.S. military and corporate trade secrets.

 

 

 

 

It is commonly misbelieved that data inside the firewall is protected and safe. In the current cyber threat environment, that is just not true. To prove this fact I examined multiple studies and found over 80 percent of organizations in the studies reported that they have had a data breach event. If that does not paint a bleak picture consider that less that 40 percent of those surveyed felt that their organization was effective at preventing breaches. Rootkits, spyware, botnets, covert channels, vulnerability exploitation, man-in-the-browser are just a few of the more advanced threats that we must deal with to protect our data and reduce the risk of data exfiltration.

 

The systematic development of advanced defenses and, equally as important, the creation of security countermeasures needed to address the ever growing number of threats to our data are currently underway. In one classified development effort, the existing security model is being turned 180 degrees and promises to produce what has been called an “Industry Changing Product” in the not so distant future. Our addiction to data is not going away. Failure to properly protect this new class of assets can have significant consequences. Failure to comply with regulations can result in substantial fines but those fines pale in comparison to the loss of customer confidence and trust. Perhaps the greatest cost is to our national security.