As predicted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a strong El Niño has set the stage for 2016 winter weather and should influence weather patterns around the globe. El Niño is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures across the equatorial Pacific. This complex shift in weather patterns can be extremely destructive and costly — not to mention deadly.

El Niño may not have a direct impact on data protection strategies, but there are a number of parallels between monitoring weather patterns and observing cyberthreats.

Are You Prepared for an El Niño-Like Threat Landscape?

While traditional data breach threats remain, it is important to closely track emerging trends and detect the workings of sophisticated attackers who devise new ways to exploit vulnerabilities, steal data and disrupt operations. You must closely monitor data for patterns of irregularities such as insider threats, where unauthorized users have access to sensitive client data or business intellectual property.

Read the Solution Brief to Learn More about Securing the Data that Powers Your Business

At the InterConnect 2016 conference, scheduled Feb. 21–25 in Las Vegas, leading security and data protection experts will share their observations, best practices and lessons learned as they plan their 2016 security strategies. Take this opportunity to learn how to fortify your data security program now to protect your environment from any new storms of attackers, thieves and malicious insiders.

While many questions will be answered as part of the InterConnect 2016 conference, the top five include:

1. How do you prioritize sensitive data and strategically plan implementation phases to mitigate risk?
2. How do you know your database administrators, contractors and service providers aren’t doing things they shouldn’t be doing?
3. Where should you get started in streamlining data protection and gaining operational efficiencies?
4. How can your organization automate different auditing and compliance processes?
5. What are the key use cases that help organizations operationalize security controls within their environment?

Data Protection and Security Sessions From IBM Clients and Partners

Protecting Data and Supporting Compliance With IBM Security Guardium at Caixa Seguradora (#3832)

Hear from one of the largest Brazilian insurance companies, Caixa Seguradora, on how it managed to comply with industry regulations and lock down customer data. Attendees will learn about how IBM Security Guardium enabled the automation of different auditing and compliance processes and how to provide information to the business about anomalous behavior.

Find the Map, Locate the Treasure and Keep the Pirates Away: 10 Data Privacy Best Practices (#2762)

Imagine yourself in an exotic tropical paradise, and your goal is to find and guard a cache of valuable buried treasure. Pirates from lands far and wide are swarming the area, and they want that treasure as badly as you. The rules require you to build your team carefully since you’ll need people to fill a variety of roles, such as navigator, interpreter and defender. But the pirates are also collaborating, and they are increasingly crafty.

Join speakers from IBM and Rocket Software to learn about these top 10 data privacy best practices to help you find and guard your company’s crown jewels.

Putting IBM Security Guardium to Work: Data Security Best Practices of Financial Services Firms (#4208)

The lifeblood of a banking or financial services firm is data. A panel of financial service security experts from IBM, Nationwide and Westfield Insurance will explore the heightened need for banks, insurers, payment processors and other financial services organizations to safeguard against cyberattacks, detect breaches and insider threats; protect the confidentiality and integrity of their most vital information assets; and meet compliance mandates.

Three Guardium Deployments: Westfield Group Shares Lessons Learned (#4209)

Join Stacey Gregerson of Westfield Insurance as he covers not only the lessons learned throughout his three Guardium deployments, but also the experiences that have been shared by other Guardium users. The session will discuss the different states of implementation, from planning to the advanced features that can improve database security in a timely fashion.

Avoid the Headlines: Proactively Protect Your Data by Creating Appropriate Controls (#5612)

In this session, learn the key use cases that helped Progressive Insurance and other clients operationalize security controls within their environment. You’ll also learn about important integrations across application and data security to help you identify vulnerabilities and make your production environment robust and secure.

Own the Entire Database Security and Compliance Life Cycle (#5649)

Data no longer just resides in databases and on-premises data repositories. It is moving in real time across traditional data sources and file systems to big data platforms and the cloud. Compounding the pressure are global sets of rules and regulations that organizations must comply with.

Join speakers from Nationwide and IBM who will discuss how data protection professionals are tasked with a daunting security challenge to protect sensitive data across a broad infrastructure.

IBM Security Guardium: Protecting Your Sensitive Data from Privileged User Issues at Every Layer (#4245)

The approach you take to protecting your organization’s data must be multilayered, regardless of whether your applications are in the cloud or on-premises. System, database and application administrators all possess broad access to systems and their contents. What can you do to defend your data’s integrity, ensure your data’s confidentiality and help maintain your company’s compliance from threats both internal and external?

Join our speaker from Information Insights for an exploratory session on how implementing tools from IBM Security can assist you in protecting your organization’s sensitive data from privileged user access.

If you are attending InterConnect 2016 in Las Vegas, I encourage you to get certified for the IBM Certified Administrator — Guardium V10.0 as well as participate in managed labs or hands-on training. Stop by security expo booth 314 to say hello!

Read the Solution Brief to Learn More about Securing the Data that Powers Your Business