Cyber incidents are becoming increasingly common and disruptive–whether it’s ransomware, data breaches, or leaks. The number of compelling events in the last few months in Australia have shown us the implications for businesses, and their customers, when a breach occurs.

2022 has been a busy year in cybersecurity with some high-profile breaches taking over the headlines late in the year. From simple negligence to unpatched systems, phishing emails, hackers, and malicious insiders our systems and data remain vulnerable. It’s clear that despite our best investments in security training and technology there is still room for improvement in 2023.

A leading European regulator fined Meta Platforms Inc., the company that owns Facebook, 265 million euros, or around $276 million, for failing to better protect the phone numbers and other personal information of more than half a billion users from so-called data scrapers.

Healthcare organizations collect and accumulate data rapidly. This makes data protection in healthcare so difficult. The more data you have, the more privacy and security risks there are. Data breaches can affect your organization’s reputation. They can also incur major costs. For instance, HIPPA violations can be as much as $1.5 million yearly. And they will hold you – the healthcare provider – responsible for data breaches.

Technology has advanced our world in countless ways. Every day we bank, shop, conduct business, and exchange photos and messages with family and friends online. While digital devices and services offer great convenience, they also pose risks to our data and privacy as our offline and online lives converge. In 2021, data breaches reached an all-time high of 1,862, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), a 68% increase over 2020.

We break down the ASCDPM standard and how Synopsys application security testing tools can help customers implement this new guidance. In early August 2022, the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ) released a new specification, the Automated Source Code Data Protection Measure (ASCDPM). CISQ is an industry leadership group that develops international standards for automating the measurement of software size and structural quality from source code.

Before I became an advisor to Netskope, I was a long serving CIO and CEO for organisations including Bayer and Philips. I have spent many hours sitting in board meetings discussing data protection with colleagues and as a result I am confused by assertions I hear that data protection is only the IT team’s problem. In my experience, the majority of data protection conversations that reach the board are, in fact, driven by legal teams, who then partner with IT to devise and execute plans.