Managing Information Resources: Ensuring Data Security

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"This (pod slurping) is a growing area of concern, and there's not a lot of awareness about it. And yet in 2 minutes, it's possible to extract about 100MB of Word, Excel, PDF files -- basically anything which might contain business data -- and with a 60GB iPod, you could probably have every business document in a medium-size firm."

- Abe Usher, a US security expert, in 2006.

"It's a real threat, but I consider it pretty minor in the overall scheme of things... We're a little bit worried about it because people can put sensitive content onto these devices and move it around, but we're more worried about accidental loss of the devices than people using them for malicious purposes."

- Rich Mogull, Vice President, Gartner Group Research, June 2007.

"Enterprises are watching employees and employees are watching employers with increasing unease on both sides. In our global economy with its fluid workforce, in which longstanding relationships of trust are difficult to establish and maintain, the temptation for businesses is clear: monitor every employee, all the time... What top managers of enterprises need to find is a balance between security that can protect their businesses and free communication that can stimulate growth."

- Richard Hunter, Vice President and Research Director, Gartner Executive Programs.

Is Your Employee Slurping Data?

In the year 2007, Gary Min, a scientist who worked with DuPont , was arrested after he had copied US$400 million worth of commercially-sensitive intellectual property from the network. Back in June 2005, a Chinese spy surrendered to the Australian security forces seeking asylum conceding that he had stolen data through his MP3 player over a period of several months. Security experts opined that with the advances in technology, companies and governments faced a new threat - ‘pod slurping’. Pod slurping or copying referred to the stealing of confidential information with the help of information technology (IT) devices like iPods , MP3 players, PDAs , digital cameras, and smart phones.

And this could be easily done by any employee of an organization. “There are dishonest people in the world -- many of them work at many companies -- and these USB devices make it rather trivial to steal huge amounts of data," said Abe Usher (Usher), a US security expert.

Data theft was one of the crimes which posed key challenges to many business establishments like banks and IT companies in the 21st century. It was the invisible nature of this crime which made it even more lethal. Due to the advancements in science and technology, organizations stored most of the important and sensitive data in the electronic format with a ‘paperless office’ being the order of the day. Protecting these vital information resources was at times proving to be a formidable challenge to many organizations.

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