In another positive step forward, more than a dozen cybersecurity vendors recently got together to form an organization to focus on mitigating data breaches.

In this LastWatchdog guest post,Ã‚Â Thom VanHorn, Vice President ofÃ‚Â Global Marketing at Application Security, describes the backdrop for the formation of the Data Security Alliance, and what this new groupÃ‚Â hopes to accomplish.

By Thom Van Horn

In the past few years weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve experienced significant changes in the way data attacks are executed. In addition, the increasing number of attacks makes it clear that enterprise data is very valuable.

Last year we witnessed Operation Aurora, what appeared to be a Chinese-sponsored attack against Google and several other technology companies. In previous years,Ã‚Â we saw Albert Gonzalez attack a broad range of retailers including TJX, Office Max, Dave & Busters, and Barnes & Noble.

Sensitive data stored in databases is frequently the target of these attacks. When a criminal can easily sell stolen credit card and Social Security Numbers on the Black Market, organizations must ensure that critical information housed in enterprise databases remains secure

Application Security, Inc. has formed the Data Security Alliance (DSA) with more than a dozen other IT Risk and Security organizations including ArcSight, Dataguise, GridApp, McAfee, Rev2 Networks, and RSA. The objective of the alliance is to help organizations strengthen their database security posture with an extensible, data-centric approach to protecting sensitive data.

The organizations are collaborating to ensure that complementary technologies are integrated with AppSecÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s DbProtect platform, enabling organizations to utilize multiple best-in-class technologies. The alliance members will also work collaboratively to promote the use of database security, risk and compliance best-practices.

With hundreds of security companies in the industry offering to solve granular security issues and with limited levels of integration between other technologies, the Data Security Alliance enables organizations to integrate complementary technologies and take an integrated and data-centric approach to solving the multitude of security issues they face.

This partnership facilitates successful database security, risk and compliance initiatives by enabling users to seamlessly combine complementary solutions to gain a best-of-breed, fully extensible approach to database security, risk and compliance.

For more information on the Data Security Alliance please click here.

October 17th, 2010 | Guest Blog Post | Steps forward