Protecting data means more than just having a backup routine. It means knowing where sensitive, confidential data is stored on a network and who has access to it. It means monitoring employees' activities on the network and at end-point connections, both inside and outside the walls of the business. And it means taking charge of data management from a single console that gives you a complete view of potential threats.

Unfortunately, "data" is a very simple idea and a seemingly harmless little word, which often doesn't communicate its scope and importance to customers the way words like "security" and "storage" do.

"We're seeing that more and more at the customer level, folks are missing the mark on data protection," explains Christopher Squier, technology solutions engineer at Ingram Micro. "When you just talk about ‘data,' you tend to marginalize the damage that can be done when data is corrupted across a network. There's a costly chain reaction that can follow. If something goes wrong with your data, no matter how big or small your organization is, your business will feel a jolting repercussion."

An Inside Job
Where are the biggest threats today? As a global recession wears on, cybercriminals are becoming more aggressive in their attempts to capitalize on vulnerabilities, both at the network and individual user levels. What's more, as unemployed knowledge workers migrate en masse into new and temporary employment, new crime statistics are emerging that IT security professionals should consider. Nearly 60 percent of employees who quit a job or were asked to leave over the last year stole some form of company data, with the top five targets being e-mail lists, business information, customer contact lists, employee records and financial information, according to the Ponemon Institute, a research group. In fact, almost a quarter (24 percent) of those surveyed for the report said they still had access to their employer's computer network, even after leaving the company.

Your customers could be sued by their new employees' former bosses if stolen data is introduced into their network and used. "Some people who do this think they're helping their next employer, but in reality they are probably punishing them, because there is constant litigation on this," said Gavin Manes, chief executive of a digital forensics company that investigates employee data theft, in a February 2009 Washington Post article. "The new employer may get secret information, but that company the person just left might very well sue the new employer."

Put Up Your Data Defenses
Make sure your customers know you can protect them from this emerging threat, as well as from more established ones.

When you partner with Symantec, you partner with a powerful ally that can help you deliver confidence to your customers. Symantec's wide range of Data Loss Prevention products and services can help you deliver a unified solution that discovers, monitors and protects confidential data wherever it's stored or used.

Being able to deliver comprehensive security offerings that protect customers at endpoints, through the network, and out to storage systems is the security story you want to be able to take back to your customers.

With Symantec, you can help your customers overcome big challenges with managing and protecting their valuable information.