By Mr. Abhishek Srinivasan
With data becoming ubiquitous and spanning across user devices, on-premises servers, and many cloud environments, it’s becoming increasingly important for organizations to protect sensitive business and consumer data to maintain integrity, ensure business continuity, and prevent loss of customer trust.
Data security shields data from unauthorized access, corruption, destruction, and theft. It’s a set of measures designed to safeguard sensitive information throughout data’s entire lifecycle, from creation and storage to use and eventual deletion.
What makes data security important?
Data security is more than adding new solutions to the tech stack.
It not only prevents organizational data from cyberattacks but also ensures compliance and maintains consumer trust. Organizations often only use encryption to protect their data, but encryption alone may not be enough to mitigate all risks. A comprehensive data security strategy incorporates various solutions to address diverse threats. Here are other reasons that make data security a must-have for organizations.
- Data security prevents organizations from internal threats. Organizations are at risk from outside threats as well as insider threats, such as disgruntled employees. Even if an employee is loyal, their credentials could be compromised, and their account exploited to steal insider data. Data security provides a robust framework to protect against all sorts of threats.
- Data security ensures compliance. Many regulations require organizations to safeguard personal data. Failing to comply with these regulations can not only result in loss of consumer trust but also hefty fines and penalties.
- Data security measures can also improve operational efficiency. By implementing strong access controls and data backup systems, businesses can minimize the risk of disruptions and ensure that authorized users always have access to the information they need.
- Data security equips businesses to prevent data breaches by providing a structured process that defines data usage, control, access, and more.
- Strong data security practices also give a business a competitive advantage. Customers are increasingly concerned about data privacy and security and are more likely to do business with companies they trust to protect their information.
Layers of data security solutions and best practices
1. Data identification and analysis
The first step to protecting data is identifying where it resides and the type of data an organization collects and stores. Data repositories are an excellent place to start consolidating the inventory of data. Next, classify this data based on the risk level to help prioritize security efforts.
2. Data masking
Not all data needs the highest level of protection. Data masking offers a valuable solution for specific datasets containing sensitive information used for testing or training purposes. Masking replaces sensitive data elements (like Social Security or credit card numbers) with fictitious values while preserving the original data structure. This allows authorized users to work with realistic data for various purposes without compromising confidentiality. A robust Data Loss Protection (DLP) solution can address this for data at rest and in motion.
3. Incident response plan
An incident response plan is an essential tool for security teams that outlines steps for identifying, containing, and recovering from a data breach. This plan should define roles and responsibilities, communication protocols for notifying stakeholders, and procedures for containing the breach, minimizing damage, and recovering your systems. Regularly test and update your incident response plan to ensure its effectiveness.
4. Password hygiene
Passwords are often the first line of defense, but weak ones are easily breached. While traditional passwords mandate users to set a complex set of alpha-numerics, passwordless authentication is an emerging technology that eliminates the need for remembering or storing passwords. Instead, they work on the user’s inherent characteristics, such as fingerprints, face recognition. This method not only makes passwords extremely difficult, if not impossible, to crack during brute-force attacks but also offer user convenience.
5. Backups
Regular data backups ensure business continuity during a cyberattack, hardware failure, or natural disaster. Implement a backup strategy that frequently creates regular backups of data (e.g., daily or hourly for critical systems). Store these backups securely offsite, either in a physically separate location or in a reputable cloud storage service, to ensure they are not compromised in the same event that affects your primary data storage.
6. Encryption
Encryption scrambles your data, rendering it unreadable to anyone who doesn’t possess the decryption key. Think of it as a coded message – only authorized users with the key can unlock its meaning. There are two main types of encryption to consider: data encryption at rest (protects data on storage devices like hard drives) and data encryption in transit (protects data while it’s being transferred across networks). By encrypting your data, you ensure that even if attackers manage to breach your systems, they cannot access the sensitive information stored within.
7. Zero trust policy
Traditional security models often grant access based on initial authentication. A zero-trust policy takes a more cautious approach. It assumes that no user or device is inherently trustworthy, whether inside or outside the network. This approach requires continuous verification and users must go through a multi-factor authentication process whenever they try to access resources, regardless of location or previous authorization. A zero-trust policy enforces the “least privilege” principle, granting users the required level of access to perform their jobs.
Conclusion
As cyberattacks become more sophisticated, it’s no longer enough to simply hope for the best. Organizations must proactively embrace robust and multiple layers of data security practices to protect their confidential and sensitive information. By building a strong defense against data breaches, organizations can ensure continued success and security of their data.
(Article by Mr. Abhishek Srinivasan, Director Product Management at Array Networks, and the views expressed in this article are his own)
