Excuse 3: SHUT THE DOOR AFTER THE HORSE HAS BOLTED. That is exactly what we hear next when data shows up stolen or vandalized. So this third installment of the Top 5 Excuses for Data Breaches and What They Really Mean will attempt to translate this into what really happened and use current news to exemplify our point. This excuse allows the breached organization to sound authoritative by providing an answer to how the breach could have been prevented to the media and public, even if it is a solution they haven’t put into practice yet. Unfortunately, the damage is already done and the misuse of privilege has caused significant enough damage to warrant the excuse being used in the first place. By providing an example of best security practice after the event, the US Government took the moral high ground during the Wikileaks debacle, and diverted attention away from their own complacency. Their missive to those responsible for handling classified information, is revealing: ...create a 'security assessment team' to review the implementation of procedures to safeguard such information, a review to include making sure that no employee has access to information beyond what is necessary to do his or her job effectively.”