Businesses these days ought to adopt a heightened security posture because data thieves tend to come in all shapes and sizes. There no longer exists a successful one-size-fits-all data protection plan because the threats are always evolving. Worse, most data breaches these days aren’t of the brute force blitzkrieg nature anymore — attackers now bide their time and lurk in the shadows, with many breach operations working months to take the opportune time to strike.
But while data loss can no longer be completely prevented by broad-spectrum threat prevention practices, the foundations of data protection remain the same. So make sure to incorporate these four tenets of modern-day data integrity into your data protection strategies:
1. Encrypting and anonymizing all data
Your organization should encrypt all your data. Encryption ensures that all your clients’ information is anonymized and your data privacy standards are upheld. Done properly, data encryption will not hamper any of your processes.
Aside from your standard encryption measures, you should also look into ways you can anonymize sensitive data from the point of recording. One common method is data redaction or masking, where some characters in a data string are replaced by preset characters.
Related article: 5 Tips for ensuring the safety of your cloud-based data
2. Identifying your organization’s data enclaves
Your organization’s different departments each handle different types and volumes of data, so it would be smart to identify where your data enclaves reside. This will help you develop an efficient strategy for protecting all your business information. For instance, if your company’s largest and most sensitive data enclaves reside within your warehousing department’s records, you’ll know to boost that department’s security to prevent data loss.
3. Aiming to meet GDPR standards
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that dictates how personal data from European Union (EU) residents are collected and processed. It is widely recognized as the toughest privacy and security law in the world. Striving to meet its standards will surely give your data protection system a huge boost.
The regulation was created to uphold lawfulness and fairness, purpose limitations, data minimization, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality, and accountability. Abiding by GDPR even if your company isn’t required to do so will pay off handsomely because the GDPR’s seven principles are an excellent foundation for any security system. Furthermore, it’s a great way to impress your clients and further build their trust in your organization.
Related article: Data privacy 101: The most important regulations explained
4. Performing social engineering audits
Most businesses these days routinely conduct IT audits, but many security experts are finding that those alone may no longer be enough. With the growing number of cases of sophisticated phishing attacks, social engineering audits are becoming less of a novelty and more of a priority.
A social engineering audit will account for your organization’s personnel — specifically with regard to how well-equipped they are to recognize and prevent sophisticated technical and social deception attempts. Phone- and email-based phishing attacks are a particularly constant threat, and making sure all members of your organization have the skills and tools to recognize these attacks is key to protecting your data.
Cover all bases with tried-and-tested data protection practices and tools from OutsourceIT. Contact us today to schedule your assessment — we’ll provide you with a data security plan that is robust, scalable, and budget-friendly.
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