Matt Lock, Director of Sales Engineers at Varonis:
“The court decision sets a precedent and sends a very effective message to UK citizens who have become victims of breaches – they can have their day in court and receive recompense for the stress, worry and sleepless nights. With the GDPR deadline looming in May, companies are running out of time and out of excuses. They need to bolster their defences and prepare for the next attack, whether that’s by a company insider or contractor with a score to settle or by criminal attackers.
This ruling underscores the essential need to limit access to sensitive information only employees who absolutely need it. And, even for insiders who do have rightful access, monitoring that access to detect malicious behaviour like that of Mr. Skelton could help detect and prevent disasters like this. Governing bodies are calling for companies to provide comprehensive data security controls, and those that fail to lock down their data will pay the price.
Unfortunately, many businesses find themselves extremely vulnerable to insider threats–malicious or otherwise. In fact, in almost half of the risk assessments we do on file systems we find thousands of sensitive files open to everyone on the network, and almost no one is monitoring how that data is being used. Too many business are just one employee action away from suffering massive fines, especially once GDPR kicks in next year.”
