Data theft is creeping closer to your door each day. If you’ve ever:

Worked for Pfizer
Stayed at a Super 8 Motel
Attended Columbia University
Had insurance with The Dental Network
Filed with the Minnesota Dept of Commerce
Received care at the Minneapolis Veterans Home

you could be one of the millions in the last 5 years to have your data tossed, lost, stolen, improperly shredded or plainly posted to the web.

Both theft and loss can be blamed as accidents but what about when a business puts your data at risk by installing unsafe applications on business computers? Could your dentist be downloading songs over the lunch hour while someone is uploading your data off his computer?

Most people would never think to ask their accountant or HMO about their data protection practices. Frankly, it’s not just the big companies. They make the headlines because of numbers. With more people working remotely from home, It makes you wonder if we’re chasing the wrong leaks.

Item: Limewire P2P software

Purpose: File sharing for downloading movies, music, images, software, etc.

Why this is an issue: P2P applications are not safe for business because they increase the risk for data theft, virus and spyware infections.

Solution: Uninstall Limewire or hire me to fix things

Reference: Article from Information Week – Our P2P Investigation Turns Up Business Data Galore

Are peer-to-peer networks really filled with sensitive corporate data just waiting to be plucked and abused? It seems unlikely–surely people wouldn’t be that sloppy. Like a 19th century prospector, I decided to dip my pan into the stream to see what I could find.

The results were shocking and scary–loads of confidential business documents and enough personal information to ruin any number of lives and create PR nightmares for quite a few companies. Among the business documents were spreadsheets, billing data, health records, RFPs, internal audits, product specs, and meeting notes, all found in a quick expedition, using simple tools.

It’s doubtful that so many people were sharing such sensitive files on purpose. More likely, the users, or even their children, had installed a P2P program to download music or a TV show, and clicked “OK” to all the questions during the install process. One of those questions is which folder to share files from, and often the default is the Windows My Documents folder. The result was plain–and in many ways worse than the lost laptops that have made so much news, because the files are available to the entire world and leave no trace when they’re taken.