How a flooded basement taught me about Data Security

Over the last few days, watching the rain pour down, I was reminded of my first home I purchased and all the great things it came with.  An updated kitchen, hardwood floors, laundry chute and...... a flooded basement.  Surprisingly, the prior owner neglected to include that in his online ad.  Maybe because it didn't flood all the time.  In fact, it only flooded when it rained very hard for very long periods of time.  With each downpour, the water grew higher and higher in the basement.  Now, I'm a kid who grew up on the 12th floor of an 18 story building so home repair was not one of my strong suits so I went to the experts.  I had a number of friends who worked in construction come over and try to figure out what the issue was.   Each person came with a different perspective and as it turned out, each one was wrong.  Finally, one one very rainy day, we saw the issue. All the water from the gutters was coming down and funneling through a single drain which was crushed forcing the water to come back up into the floor drain right outside the basement door.  OK, this was good.  We now know what the issue so lets fix it. 

Again, I had some of my construction friends come over and each one gave me the same advice.  Put in a sump pump.  Now, I didn't want to appear naive or stupid and ask what a sump pump was so I asked "What's a sump pump?".  For those of you like me that don't know what a sump pump is, its a pump that sits below your floor in your basement that when water comes in, it pumps the water out.  

Not to sound like Tom Hanks' character in BIG but "I don't get it" I asked each of them, why would I want to wait until water gets in the house to pump it out.?  Why wouldn't I rather fix the issue that is causing the water to come in?.   And, that's exactly what we did.  We hired someone to come and dig two very long trenches from our house to the wooded area in our backyard and ran PVC through it.  They removed the crushed drain and re-routed all the water from the gutters into the new PVC which then funneled all the water away from the house.  Problem Solved!

OK, Steve.   Nice story but how does this relate to Data Security.  Well, here's how.  Each and every company I meet with talks about the tools they use to identify, manage and secure sensitive data on their desktops, laptops & mobile devices.  This data can then be quarantined or simply identified as sensitive to the user.  This doesn't solve the problem.  I have not met a single company that hasn't had a device stolen, lost or damaged.  To me, this is just like a sump pump.  Why wait till the data is in a place where it can be compromised and then try to classify it.

Every one I talked to wanted me to wait until the water was in the house and then pump it out.  Everyone I talk to wants to allow sensitive data on their devices and then identify it.  I think the solution of preventing an issue from every happening is a much safer choice than waiting until it happens and then having a process to deal with it.  By digging those trenches and re-routing the water, we avoided the issue.  Dig your trenches now.  Prevent sensitive data from living on a device that can be stolen, lost or damaged.  Keep it secure.  Keep it managed.  Keep it in your data center and leverage tools to have your users stay connected to this data without sacrificing security.