Comment from Martin Sugden, MD of Boldon James on the following news that Russian hackers had gained access to some of President Obama’s unclassified and confidential emails.
“The recent news that Russian hackers had accessed the White House IT network and President Obama’s unclassified emails highlights that if you don’t classify emails and have the correct tools in place to protect information, such breaches can and do occur. Users operate at different levels, either on restricted and unrestricted platforms; without classification labels, they can be confused as to how they should be handling such data.
In the UK, under the Government Security Classification (GSC) scheme, all government and public sector organisations must classify all of their information assets. It is their duty to put strategies, policies and technology safeguards in place to minimise the risk of a data breach.
Properly applied, data classification and data loss prevention tools can prevent malicious misuse of data. We hope to see more organisations take note and follow suit, as without data classification organisations are flying blind when they allow employees to create and move data, as they can lose insight into the value of the data they hold.”
By Martin Sugden, MD of Boldon James
BIO: Martin joined Boldon James in 1998 and has over twenty years experience in the Security Industry. He led the Management Buyout (MBO) of Boldon James backed by ISIS Equity Partners and the subsequent sale to QinetiQ. His career began with Ernst & Young as a Chartered Accountant and he has been the CFO of two LSE-listed companies, the first of which he floated. His main passion is business development and he has held significant roles in a number of blue chip UK and US companies. Martin has an honours degree in Economics and Geography from Bradford University.
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