The explanation behind the long string of hacks we’ve seen lately that stretches back all the way to last year may show that hackers are getting smarter, but some cases can also be attributed to organizations’ failure to protect themselves. One clear example is that of Sony, which was hacked multiple times and let customer data fall into hackers’ hands due to, among other things, the fact it stored that information in plain text format.

Now, companies are starting to pay more attention to protecting their data. Back in 2009, 57 hard drives containing unencrypted personal data of almost a million members of BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) of Tennessee were stolen from a leased facility in Chattanooga. Two years later, the organization announced that it has completed a one year-long and $6 million cost process of encrypting all of its files and data.

From the official release:

BlueCross invested more than $6 million and 5,000 man-hours in the data encryption effort, which included:

– 885 Terabytes of mass data storage
– 1,000 Windows, AIX, SQL, VMWare and Xen server hard drives
– 6,000 workstation hard drives and removable media drives
– 25,000 voice call recordings per day
– 136,000 volumes of backup tape

BCBS said it has done this in-house because it was not able to a vendor that could power a project of this scale.

Encryption has been a major topic. Back when LulzSec was still around, the group leaked 446MB worth of e-mails sent by officials at the Arizona’s Department of Public Safety. This incident could have been avoided if the e-mails had been encrypted, though that hasn’t stopped hackers before. Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn revealed that hackers stole over 24,000 sensitive files from the Pentagon, which were most likely encrypted.

Encryption is a huge aspect of cybersecurity, but when it comes to mobile security, there are whole new issues involved. One of the most significant ones is the need for a layer of physical security, something that will have to be incorporated into enterprise security management strategies along with thorough user training.