The Attack on RSA

RSA, which holds 70% of the market for encryption, recently suffered what they called a major sophisticated attack. Their systems were breached and some of the details of their encryption technology were stolen. At this point, nobody seems to know what exactly was stolen and what the impact might be.

Encryption of data has become the most important technique to preserve the integrity, security and privacy of corporate data. Something that has become both more important and more difficult since the advent of mobile units, cloud computing and data mobility. A breach of sensitive data could be catastrophic for an enterprise.

IT Security professionals are anxiously awaiting more news from RSA about what information was lost and what the implications might be. If the information is so extensive that an attack could be mounted against them, then they will need to change their encryption approach, or bolster it in some way. But at this point, they don't have enough information to be able to act.

It's not an event that inspires confidence in anything, and enterprises are understandably nervous. Here's a report on the breach.