Sure, is a huge deal. But, data manipulation can be just as serious, if not more serious for some institutions. Consider an organization's scientific research data being unknowingly changed to throw a research project off-track. This could potentially destroy any chance the company has to succeed with a project. [Also see: ""]

"These days, you can't just protect the information from being viewed, you also need to protect it from being changed or modified," said Henry.

To this end, has become a component of a number of industry guidelines, government regulations and other internationally published standards. "Take financial institutions," says Gault. "They are bound to numerous data integrity requirements, so it is critical for these firms to have a secure audit trail around all aspects of their financial transaction histories; an audit trail that will stand the test of time, stand up in a court of law, hold up against regulatory scrutiny; an audit trail that cannot be manipulated by insiders, even when they maintain trusted access to core financial systems."

And of course when you have it all mapped out, it's important to execute the plan. "Companies must put their plans to the test, conducting table-top exercises for key scenarios the companies expect to encounter," Aldridge added.

As with anything specialized and complicated, practice makes perfect. Therefore, successfully getting through the response process takes practice. "You play the way you practice," said Henry during his keynote. "Training exercises are critical -- organizations need to conduct table-top exercises so that when things go bad within the process they know how to react to different situations."