Data Security: What is it?
- May 20, 2020
- Posted by: Admin
- Category: Innovation, Security, Technology
A data security framework is essential for all businesses.
Today, we do a lot online, and the rise in digitization and networked business activities has created unprecedented amounts of data. Unfortunately, more data means more opportunities for it to be lost, corrupted, sabotaged, or stolen, which is why it is crucial for business leaders to understand the term data security.
Put simply, data security refers to the policies and processes put in place by a business to protect their data from all sorts of harm, such as unauthorized access and theft, data corruption, or malicious software and ransomware.
This article will explain the different pillars of data security, and what businesses can do to ensure that their information is safe and secure.
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The threat of lost, stolen, or corrupted data
Data loss, whether due to human error, software or hardware failure, or cybercrime, can disrupt your business in significant ways. Businesses might lose important intellectual property, potentially to rivals. Customer and client details might be stolen and sold on the dark web, potentially leading to legal liabilities. Data loss could even see your business’s financial security compromised if the credentials of bank accounts are misplaced or stolen.
Cybercrime alone has become a significant and constant threat to businesses. By 2021 cybercrime will cost the global economy over $6 trillion per year. In the UK, 47% of businesses have reported [PDF] a cyber breach or attack in the last 12 months, costing the target business an average of £1,230. Despite this, only 27% have a formal data security policy.
Protecting your business’s most important information with a data security plan is therefore essential. This article explains exactly what data security means and outlines the key pillars of a comprehensive data security framework.
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The pillars of data security for businesses
There are several pillars of a comprehensive data security framework for businesses, and without a plan for each, your business is exposed to vulnerabilities. On the other hand, a comprehensive data security plan will protect your business against cybercrime and data loss. It will protect, and perhaps even increase, your organizations’ reputation and fiscal health.
We will now outline these essential pillars for data security, which all businesses should invest in.
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Encryption
The encryption of data is one of the easiest ways to increase data security within your organization. There are many different types of encryption, but the core idea remains the same: encrypting important data makes it impossible for anyone to read or edit that data without the authentication key.
Authentication
Authentication refers to the use of passwords, pin codes, or biometric data to gain access to applications, websites, and other online and digital services. While in the past, simple passwords would suffice, today compromised credentials are one of the leading causes of data loss due to cybercrime.
The best way to protect your business is with a password manager. The best password managers, such as LastPass and RoboForm, provide crucial services to businesses that increase their data security and make it almost impossible for your authentication data to be compromised. These include complex password generation, end-to-end encrypted storage of authentication data, and single sign-on solutions.
Access Control
Even within your organization, it is likely that you don’t want all employees to have access to all your data all the time. This would increase your exposure to data loss and cybercrime, and would undermine the other security pillars put in place by your business.
Access control is a type of data security that allows business leaders to allocate data permissions on an employee-by-employee basis or even a team-by-team basis. Access control gives administrators the flexibility to ensure an employee only sees the data relevant to their role, and only as much as is needed to fulfill the task. This limits vulnerabilities and makes it easier to manage sensitive data.