Even before her state of California put a stake in the ground regarding public disclosure of data breaches, Christy Quinlan could see the wisdom in encrypting client data on mobile devices. Shortly after Quinlan became CIO of California’s Department of Health Care Services in 2005, one of the agency’s partners lost a computer.

The contractor had to notify everyone who might have been affected, at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars. And while Quinlan’s staff had not lost the laptop, they still spent much of the week before a holiday co-ordinating with the contractor to determine the possible scope of the security breach and then ensuring swift and proper notification. "Once information is on the loose, you can never get it back," Quinlan says.

At Computing SA.

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