Recent Research Commissioned by Microsoft on Data Governance and Role Collaboration

Microsoft Privacy Team — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:38:00 GMT

Hi, I am Brendon Lynch, Director of Privacy Strategy in Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group. Among other things, my team’s work includes engagement with external privacy stakeholders and advising Microsoft product groups on data governance strategies.

I wanted to highlight some interesting research we recently conducted which explores how different roles within organizations are collaborating to protect personal information.

As you are probably aware, there is a lot of concern about personal information today. Research, including the latest edition of Microsoft’s Security Intelligence Report, shows that criminals are increasingly targeting personal information for financial gain. Other research shows that consumers are expressing concerns about shopping and banking online. We are also observing a seemingly endless string of reports of data breaches.

In response to these concerns, many organizations in both the public and private sectors are investing in people, process and technology to better govern the data they collect and manage. Looking at the people dimension of data governance, three important roles within organizations that standout are information security professionals, the data collectors and users (e.g., marketers) and privacy professionals (the newest role to emerge). We thought it would be interesting to explore how these roles are working with each other (or not!) to address data governance.

Our survey of over 3600 professionals across these three roles, and across three countries (USA, UK and Germany), was conducted by the Ponemon Institute and provided some very interesting results, including:

· Marketers consult security and privacy professionals a lot less often than security and privacy professionals think they do

· Organizations that had better collaboration between the roles reported that they had significantly less data breaches than organizations with poor collaboration

I encourage you to take a deeper look at the research results and view two related keynote presentations from Microsoft executives last month: Scott Charney, presenting to the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) annual Privacy Academy in San Francisco; and Ben Fathi presenting to the RSA Security Conference in London.

Trevor Hughes, executive director of IAPP and Peter Cullen, chief privacy strategist for Microsoft, also recorded a video discussing the data protection research and other challenges facing privacy professionals today.

Welcome to The Data Privacy Imperative Blog!

Microsoft Privacy Team — Mon, 14 May 2007 12:02:00 GMT

Peter Cullen, Microsoft’s Chief Privacy Strategist, here ...

For more than a decade, Microsoft has had employees dedicated to advancing customer privacy priorities across the company, the industry and society. We now have more than 40 full-time privacy professionals across the company, as well as a few hundred more with privacy management as a formal part of their job responsibilities. I thought it is about time you heard directly from them (and me), and have the opportunity to engage in discussion with us on this increasingly important topic. In this blog, you can expect us to provide perspective on topical privacy issues, as well as information on particular aspects of Microsoft’s unique approach to addressing customer privacy.

Im-per-a-tive [noun]. Something that demands attention or action; an unavoidable obligation or requirement; necessity.

You may have noted the title of this blog uses the word ‘imperative’. Is privacy really an imperative? Yes, and here’s why:

Information technology has dramatically transformed how a large segment of the world’s population works, communicates, learns, shops and plays. Meanwhile, the Internet and increasingly powerful wireless and broadband technologies are carrying the benefits of the Web to virtually every corner of the world, helping to create new opportunities for millions of people and businesses in the global economy.

Yet, as advances in technology simplify and accelerate the flow of information, concerns about the collection and use of personal data, widely publicized security and data breaches, and growing alarm about online fraud and identity theft, threaten to erode public confidence in the computing ecosystem and digital commerce.

Global trends indicate a steady increase in crimes like identity theft and online phishing scams aimed at deceiving individuals into divulging their personal information. Microsoft’s Security Intelligence Report for the second half of 2006 shows that certain classes of spyware are evolving into more targeted and dangerous threats to privacy. For example, detections of remote control and monitoring software by Windows Defender, Microsoft’s anti-spyware client, were up 277 percent and 135 percent respectively between the first and second half of 2006. This type of software is used to commit data theft or to control large numbers of computer systems.

At the same time, studies worldwide show a decline in confidence that information shared online will remain both secure and private. In light of these developments, as well as an increasingly rigorous regulatory environment and the growing volume of personal information being collected by businesses and government, private and public sector organizations are beginning to understand that managing and helping protect people’s confidential data must be a top priority. For organizations , failing to prioritize privacy can prompt heavy financial losses, damage to reputations and loss of consumer and citizen trust.

Helping ensure privacy in today’s digital era is critical to the full realization of the social and economic benefits of technology and the Internet – simply put, it’s an imperative.

In the coming weeks and months you will hear from a range of Microsoft’s privacy professionals, and the occasional guest, on important matters relating to privacy. We look forward to your readership and participation. If you’d like to find out more about Microsoft’s privacy practices, solutions and engagement, I encourage you to visit our Web site and download our latest whitepaper, ‘The Data Privacy Imperative’.

The Data Privacy Imperative : Security Intelligence Report

Recent Research Commissioned by Microsoft on Data Governance and Role Collaboration

Welcome to The Data Privacy Imperative Blog!