This year was marked by a number of high-profile data breaches worldwide. While the U.S. experienced numerous incidents that shook the population's confidence in the ability of organizations to protect sensitive information, New Zealand companies and government agencies also came under fire for data security lapses.

The information protection situation has become severe enough in 2012 that New Zealand privacy commissioner Marie Shroff named it "the year of the data breach." Shroff referenced several breaches in her country and provided additional research to highlight the legitimacy of modern-day threats. For example, 60 percent of New Zealand residents said they don't trust government agencies to protect their private information. Another 88 percent said they would want companies punished for misusing sensitive data.

"The public sector can't afford to be complacent. It's quite clear that agencies holding large amounts of personal information need to place greater value on that information asset," Shroff said. "They need to develop strong leadership and a culture of respect for privacy, as well as day to day policies and practices to provide trustworthy stewardship of our personal information at every level of the organisation. There has been far too little focus on the fact that there are real people behind the masses of information that government agencies hold."

As worldwide attention turns to data protection, both the private and public sectors will need to evaluate their security postures, review the implementation of data encryption software and close gaps where they exist.

Information sharing: A data security risk
In both the United States and United Kingdom, the call has gone out for greater collaboration between government agencies and the private sector. However, trading cybersecurity secrets carries risks of its own, as Crispin Blunt, former justice minister, told publicservice.co.uk. He referenced the need to bring private sector knowledge to government-owned databases, but warned that giving more people access opens new vulnerabilities.

"This is a complex issue and we need to work with the private sector to ensure this is progressed in a cost efficient way with the appropriate safeguards to strike the right balance of protecting the privacy of the individual and providing more cost-effective services to the general public," Blunt told the news source.

Sharing information between organizations means that there are more places for unauthorized access to occur. If the push toward information sharing progresses, it will become critical to not only evaluate partners but utilize data-centric security solutions so that a breach in a partner's system doesn't compromise valuable records.