Compare policies to various compliance regimes such as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and generate reports for audits.

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Mike Smart from cryptography specialists Safenet said that many companies were only applying their highest security protocols to data such as credit card numbers.

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And, in the payments industry, self-policing is in place through the PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) which, while not a federal law, has become law in some states.

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Just as PCI demands rigorous security practices from those who handle consumer credit card data, regulations can demand a similar level of competence from companies that collect and mine user contextual data.

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Those included posting private data, including credit-card and Social Security numbers, of Web users and launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against media sites who posted stories they didn't like.

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The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Counsel has established a set of data compliance standards that all retailers should follow.

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So if you have an application with sensitive customer data such as names, addresses, social security numbers and credit card numbers, thoughtless cloning can result in major exposure.

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In terms of security, Commercial Progression uses PCI standards for credit card transactions and they conduct nightly data back-ups.

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The exposure of sensitive customer or financial data poses a major security risk for companies, especially those that focus on handling private customer data such as insurance companies, banks and credit card companies.

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