Live Data Feeds

Live Data Feeds

Live Data Feeds

Posted on: January 16, 2012 - 4:12 am
by Admin

Data loss has become an increasingly prevalent and attention grabbing topic in the news over the past decade, but attempting to prevent the loss of sensitive information is an old story. The Caesar Cipher was used during the Roman Empire to prevent secret communication between Rome and the outlying empire. The cipher defeated the enemies of Rome in two impressive ways. First, the alphabet was reconfigured using the displacement method, in which the alphabet was rotated to a new position. For example, the alphabet was move three positions with the letter A becoming the letter D and the letter M becoming the letter O. The Second and most important feature was that the people fighting Rome were barely literate if at all, and modifying the alphabet almost ensured it secrecy.

Federal and Local Government Issues

Fast forward to the 21st century and we are still facing the same problems that Caesar faced 2000 years ago. The recent WikiLeaks debacle has brought the security of sensitive government information into question, as well as the individuals who were supposedly there to protect that information. In theory, military and government personnel go through a strenuous vetting process in which criminal background checks are completed, a financial history is reviewed, references from personal acquaintances are obtained, foreign contacts are evaluated, and in cases of access to more sensitive information, polygraphs may be required. So how is data lost which could potentially place the lives of forward deployed troops, confidential informants, and undercover agents in danger? The simple answer is the human factor. Perhaps the 18 year old had a clean record when he or she enlisted in the military, thus the background check showed nothing; two years later, this young person had come into debt, become disenchanted with the service, or yearned for notoriety and leaked what they knew to the press for either money or fame.