Information Risk Management Plc.

Sky News Interview

London – Friday March 2, 2007

The interview in which Steve Darrall, Senior Security Consultant at IRM, participated during the Live at Five programme on Friday March 2 with Jeremy Thompson centred on IT crime, specifically ID theft and the question: just how easy is it to obtain personal information?

Sky News was approached by an individual who through a music sharing site had various people’s bank and passport details inadvertently exposed to him. This case highlights how easy it is to attain sensitive personal information which could be used in identity theft or other crimes.

The main point that Steve discussed was that many companies, even ones who believe they have secured information properly, in fact have lax control over data. Some companies may not understand where exactly in their organisation all of this data is stored, making it hard to control, secure and track, as well as having potentially dangerous policies in place such as allowing employees to take laptops, which contain sensitive customer details, home with them where the machine can be easily compromised.

On the other side, individuals may not understand exactly how music/file sharing sites work. Often people think that they are only sharing certain files when in fact all of the information contained on their computer is exposed.

Hopefully viewers will now realise that it is up to the individual to know exactly what they are getting into on file sharing sites they might visit as well as the companies’ responsibility who store personal information to make sure that it is 100% secure.

About IRM:
Information Risk Management Plc (IRM) is a vendor independent information risk consultancy, founded in 1998. IRM has become a leader in client side risk assessment, technical level auditing and in the research and development of security vulnerabilities and tools. IRM is headquartered in London with Technical Centres in Europe and Asia as well as Regional Offices in the Far East and North America.

IRM has much experience helping companies audit their data flows, helping put secure control systems into place, performing due diligence and testing various data processes.