While traditional security models focus on keeping external attackers out, the reality is that there are as many threats inside an organization as outside.

More organizations lose key business data from internal factors than any external hacks could achieve. There are multiple internal reasons that we have seen in our experience with clients — mismanagement by IT staff,  botched data backups and recovery, and data storage systems with flaws, and often because of incompetency of staff or lack of strictly enforced rules related to data security.

Mobile technology, cloud computing, social media, employee sabotage — are just some of the internal threats organizations face today. Externally, it’s not just about the lone hacker who strikes for kicks. Overall, the risk environment is changing.

The most important element of IT Risk Management is to ensure that business data (meta data and operational data) have at least double back up, and the CEO, CFO and CTO should have access to the isolated business data backup, and it must not be available to the IT team for their regular work, otherwise it will get compromised or corrupted. Software applications are easy to re-install from a DVD or the vendor’s team will do it in 1-2 days, but Data is unique to your company and if you lose it, then it is very bad event, disaster in some cases. Your business will stall and customers may also file lawsuits if their data is misused.

Once you have ensured that your business data is safe, then all other risks can be managed by company specific schedules, rules and regulations.

Often, security professionals complain that they are too busy reacting to immediate issues and have no time to anticipate what may be lurking around the corner. To have any hope of protecting your organization’s critical assets, the business and security teams need to understand where your information lives, inside or outside. Identifying what your organization classifies as its most important information and applications, where they reside and who has or may need access to them will enable the business to understand which areas of the security program are most vulnerable to attack.

Although organizations have been dealing with opportunistic cyber attacks for years, many now find themselves the target of more sophisticated and persistent efforts. These attacks are focused on a single objective, often lasting over a long period of time and until the desired target is obtained. They leave few signs of disturbance because they are designed to remain hidden to acquire as much sensitive information as possible.

In our experience, those at the greatest risk are information-intensive entities or organizations with intellectual property that is most attractive in emerging economies.

Unfortunately, most organizations have no idea they are compromised or about to lose key data, until it is too late. And then they look for quick solutions, willing to pay 10-100X of what it would have taken to establish a solid secure system.

Following is the recommended project for every company / organization.

Website/Business Data Security: This involves testing and plugging of loopholes and vulnerabilities and protection against data theft attempts. This is a high value service with a low cost if done at the right time, because your data is safe only till it’s gone, and then it’s chaos. Once your business data is lost or damaged, the solutions are very expensive and time consuming. Large companies are paying millions of dollars every month in data recovery, and small companies just close down in many cases. Unless you are really sure about your website/data security, this service is the ideal low hanging fruit, and probably the most important software project for every business today. We have experience in doing it right.

Please see this page to learn about the top 4 recommended projects: https://jupitersystems.org/projects/