How do Canadian security experts help companies reduce supplier-related data breaches by 63%?

TORONTO, March 14, 2014 /CNW/ - Many of the security and privacy breaches from the past year have been traced to failures to protect data. Surprisingly, responsibility fell on trusted third parties with weak security practices. From the Target breach to global stock exchanges, up to 63% of security infractions and business disruptions have been attributed to suppliers and vendors.

"Outsourcing to companies that mismanage sensitive data can lead to breach price tags 18% higher than usual" said Claudiu Popa, leading security expert and CEO of Informatica. "Personal health information, customer details and financial data are at highest risk as 91% of companies fail to review vendor practices".

Can service providers be trusted?

The company's acclaimed Verify™ risk assessment service professionally audits 3rd party vendors, responsible for 42% of breaches, ensuring compliance with the right standards and legislation. More importantly, it controls risk by aligning service provider security procedures to client policies.

"Verify™ flags the use of spray-on policies, data storage deficiencies, insecure information exchange and unnecessary data transfers, poor physical storage, weak accountability structures and service level management" said Popa. "Verify™ is definitely not your run-of-the-mill checklist review. Clients rely on us to enforce policy compliance between them and their suppliers".

Cloud-based risk

Over the past year, Verify™ has seen a surge in interest for cloud-based service risk assessments. Canadian companies are increasingly attracted to the efficiencies of hosted solutions, but they lack the capabilities to conduct privacy impact assessments or security penetration tests to prevent future incidents.

"Ensure that vendors deserve your trust. That's what Verify™ is designed to do". The service starts at $750 from SecurityAudits.ca

About the Company:

Informatica is Canada's first security assurance-as-a-service company, specializing in security and privacy vulnerability assessments. The company's Statement of Trust™ is a sought-after trustmark awarded to organizations that successfully embrace security and privacy. Independent Verify™ assessments help protect Canadian companies from costly outages, performance issues, website crashes, accidental service interruptions, malicious hacking, privacy breaches, data centre breaches and policy violations.

Compliance and pre-audit services for PIPEDA, PHIPA, CASL and PCI-DSS are provided by experienced security professionals and certified Risk Advisors.

SOURCE: Informatica Security Corporation

For commentary and media interviews: Claudiu Popa, CEO, Informatica Corporation, email: [email protected], www.SecurityandPrivacy.ca/verify, Twitter @datarisk, 1 Yonge St. Toronto, Canada, 416-431-9012