How to avoid 5 common storage mishaps

Think you can guess the No. 1 threat to the security of your stored data? If you said hackers, or even trouble-making insiders, you'd be wrong. While malicious threats are an ongoing concern, it's your well-meaning employees who are more likely to unknowingly expose your company's stored data through, say, a file-sharing network or a misplaced laptop.

In fact, a recent Ponemon Institute study found that negligent insiders are by far the biggest threat to data security, accounting for 78 percent of all breaches.

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In this special report, you'll learn the latest techniques for protecting stored data within company walls as well as stored data that flows freely in and out of your organization on laptops, tapes and other movable media.

And don't forget to take the Storage Networking Industry Association's storage security self-assessment quiz and test how well your stored data is protected. Plus, brush up on storage terms with SNIA's online glossary and resource guide.

Data breaches, unfortunately, have become a way of life for corporate America. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), 2008 saw a 47 percent increase in documented data breaches from the year before. And those are just the ones that made the news, says Craig Muller, an identity theft expert and founder of Identity Doctor in Irvine, Calif. "I get e-mails constantly telling me of breaches," he says.

The public is definitely feeling the pain. In a 2008 study by the Ponemon Institute in Traverse City, Mich., over half (55 percent) of 1,795 adult respondents across the United States said they'd been notified of two or more data breaches in the previous 24 months, and 8 percent said that they'd received four or more notifications.

But companies are still not sure how to protect themselves. In a Ponemon survey released last month, only 16 percent of the 577 security professionals who responded said that they were confident or very confident that current security practices could prevent the loss or theft of customer or employee data.

One way to gain confidence is to examine actual breaches and learn from them. Here's a look at five common types of breaches, with advice about how to avoid similar mishaps.