It’s time to face the hard facts of the fast-moving, ever-evolving technological world we’re living in today. Data vulnerability and security breaches are real problems that every company needs to handle on a daily, weekly, and even moment-to-moment basis.
There’s no getting around the truth that malicious software and data attacks are evolving apace of new security measures. When it comes to concerns about data privacy, malware infestation, internal document leakage, or more extreme crises — such as financial devastation wreaked by hackers or ransomware — there are the quick and the dead. Some businesses lag behind, assuming that such attacks are centered on mega-corporations or governmental agencies, but no companies or industries are immune. As Verizon noted in its 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, only 10% of data attacks were related to espionage, while 86% were financially motivated.
Some companies and executives are doing all they can to keep up with the current state of data security, identifying growing threats and seeking the most efficacious means of protecting themselves. But traditional measures struggle to address the treacherous spread of cyberattacks. Companies labor to surround their data with firewalls like armor, but one overlooked vulnerability can instantaneously render their efforts moot. For years, there has been a gap in the field of data security which hackers and other online threats have exploited, again and again, kneecapping businesses who were unprepared to handle an invasion.
True data security requires a new approach. So it was into this gap that Sertainty has stepped, growing from roots in coding and knowledge constructs to develop a revolutionary solution to network privacy and data breaches.
Our Beginnings
In 2011, Sertainty Technology launched as an arcane general-purpose-technology. This integrated language was accessibility-compliant and boasted versatility for a wide variety of applications, powered by an intelligence engine infused directly into a data file. This, in turn, allowed the adoption of Sertainty Technology into a coding protocol that today is known as “Self-Protecting-Data.”
Self-Protecting-Data is so cutting-edge as a technology that it allows your internal data to possess the “awareness” (via AI and machine learning nuances) to detect and respond appropriately to potential threats automatically. Think of Sertainty Technology as a system that allows your data to protect itself, adapting over time to do so better, faster, and with a more robust reaction, evolving endlessly into the future ahead.
With history and experience in the realm of deep tech, Sertainty has been able to examine privacy issues from an entirely new angle, reinventing the standard of data security with the Sertainty UXP technology. These advancements are arriving just in time, as we witness a sharp spike in digital threats and the rapid digitization of sensitive “crown jewel” data across industries.
Why “Crown Jewel” Data Requires New Security Measures
While Sertainty blazed a new path in data privacy, we were not building our solutions in a vacuum. Even as the UXP technology was developed, the field of cyber defense was shifting as more organizations recognized the increased challenges and need for more thorough data protection measures.
For one, the US military turned its attention to the issue, acknowledging data security as a crucial battlefield for the sake of national defense. New emphasis and initiatives were quickly put into place to codify and prioritize high-value data known as “crown jewels.”
A 2016 memo from the Office of Management and Budget put data security front and center, designating the idea of crown jewels as “those assets, federal information systems, information and data for which an unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction could cause a significant impact to the United States’ national security interests, foreign relations, economy or to the public confidence, civil liberties or public health and safety of the American people.”
Further guidance followed from the White House in 2018, seeking to create a unified and strategic approach to data risk management across all federal agencies, large or small. This guidance set standards to define which data qualifies as “crown jewels” and how teams must maintain the defense of these assets, while allowing each agency to analyze and rank their data and system needs accordingly.
Identifying crown jewel data is only the first step in implementing appropriate security measures. Government agencies are typically handling the most sensitive of data, from personally identifiable information (PII) like social security numbers and census data to infrastructure systems, pending legislation, mission-essential intelligence, and vulnerable internal reporting.
With such data of the highest priority, we quickly see the bigger implications of advancements in the data privacy sector.
Once, data security was wholly reliant on external measures such as firewalls, designed to surround your sensitive systems from the outside. However, these measures become essentially useless if breached. As NextGov observed, “It is widely understood in cybersecurity circles that you can’t defend all things at all times.” Unfortunately, this means that the concept behind firewalls and other external measures is fundamentally limited, if not flawed outright.
Traditional security perimeters promise to build an “impenetrable” wall around your data. Still, the reality of ongoing high-profile breaches and vulnerabilities shows that the illusory safety of these measures has actually become an acute industry burden. When it comes to high-priority data assets — the aforementioned crown jewels — more thorough and stringent defenses must be put in place.
Here, the innovations from Sertainty prove crucial. With Sertainty UXP technology, the data itself is empowered to defend itself with a cybersecurity solution that can learn, understand, and react independently without the costly, time-consuming, and often unrealistic need for constant human intervention or supervision. Intelligence and protection artifacts are built directly into the metadata of documents and datasets, making data morph out of its inert status to become self-aware, self-protecting, and self-mitigating. The result is a resilient and versatile privacy solution.
How Data Protection Needs to Translate for the Private Sector
The need for more robust security is not limited to governmental assets. As companies in all sectors streamline their processes and communications with increased digitization, their sensitive records also become increasingly at risk. Client, stakeholder, and employee PII; proprietary product or service data; internal communications — the crown jewels of the corporate realm are just as sensitive and devastating if leaked.
As recently as spring 2021, an alarming 70% of Fortune 500 companies revealed that they find it continuously challenging to guarantee the security and privacy of both their own and their clients’ data. However, the sustainability and longevity of many businesses are reliant upon the security of this information.
As Fortune Magazine suggested in a recent report, “Data breaches can result in serious damage to a company’s reputation and trust with consumers, as well as leaving the company on the hook for millions in fines and potential civil penalties in lawsuits.”
In short order, such a breach can spell financial catastrophe, undercutting or even collapsing the stability of affected companies. As such, companies, agencies, and industries at large cannot afford to ignore security concerns or leave themselves half-protected by outdated security measures. They need cutting-edge solutions backed up by data-proven results.
Fortunately, help in the war for data privacy and security is here. From our roots in deep tech research to implementable data solutions, Sertainty has developed into the ideal partner for sensitive data protection. Specializing in our field, Sertainty is leading the pack in privacy solutions that are agile, effective, and sustainable for businesses of any size and in any industry.
To find out how we can meet and surpass your unique cybersecurity needs, contact our team today and unlock the future of data protection.