For all of the benefits of Big Data, the issue of security is sometimes left behind. Big Data is a big thing today, touted as a full court press of information that, once assimilated and properly used, will mean a shot in the arm for businesses that want to grow and succeed in today’s economy. After all, knowledge is power, and every business today wants more power!

While the initial challenge of Big Data was securing continuous access and managing the sheer volume of information, the new priority is making sure that the information is secure.

Big data means big security issues

A New Security Scare

For all of the talk about Internet data security, there’s always a new threat that shakes people up, and, appropriately enough, on April 1 of this year, a new bug was reported that exposed a serious vulnerability in the OpenSSL cryptographic software library. Called “Heartbleed”, it lets anyone on the Internet to read system memories that are protected by those vulnerable versions of the OpenSSL software. This means that hackers could steal data (content, passwords, user names), eavesdrop on communications, and actually impersonate users and services.

This design flaw has resulted in the creation of Fixed Open SSL, which requires users and service providers to install the fix. And while it’s good that there’s a solution out there (provided everyone that uses OpenSSL implements the fix), it does cast a disturbing light on the integrity of data security, especially as it pertains to Big Data. After all, an unscrupulous business, exploiting a flaw like Heartbleed, could find themselves in possession of a competitor’s data.

Different Industries, Different Fears

Put simply, the crux of the Big Data security matter is that you have an amazingly large amount of data coming in from all manner of sources, and it’s often difficult to figure out the integrity of the sources as well as who should be given access to what.

But it’s not accurate to say that all businesses have the same security concerns about Big Data. In a recent interview with Kole Hicks, Senior Director of Products at GoGrid, the point is made that one customer is more concerned with PCI compliance, while another is focused on HIPAA.

Possible Solutions

Analytics tools can be implemented to spot abuse and access violations as well as analyzing user behavior, so that it becomes easier to ascertain who has access what information, and what they did with it.

Furthermore, measures need to be implemented to make sure that users get access to the data that they need and nothing else. The problem is that Big Data is derived from multiple sources, and a company utilizing it needs to make sure that there are rules in place to control who can read what data.

In a recent article on the GoGrid.com website, various security innovations are touched upon as ways of securing Big Data. Just like there are different concerns, there are different solutions designed to address those issues specifically.

So Is Big Data Safe?

In a rush to the cloud, big data has remained open to privacy violations and abuse. There is probably no magic bullet that will completely allay all security concerns.  It seems that the best we can hope for is that the implementation of security measures such as the ones mentioned above will help keep offenses down to a dull roar. Sometimes, the price you have to pay for benefiting from Big Data is being exposed to some degree of risk.