Three Steps to Implementing an Effective Data Safeguarding Program

Today’s security experts are constantly reading news articles about the potential repercussions of not implementing an effective data safeguarding plan..

You risk paying more than simply compensation or a fine if your data breach incident makes it to the news. The worst kind of bad press is data breaches, which can have a long-term negative impact on your profits.

Every discussion on data privacy and cyber security revolves around safeguarding against data breaches. Data leakage or unauthorised access by a third party could result in identity theft, financial loss, and reputational damage.

A company handles a variety of personal information pertaining to both clients and staff. You can imagine how damaging a breach of this information would be in the absence of suitable cyber security measures.

This is why one of the most crucial activities in risk assessment and data security for your company is comprehending what personal data is and how to secure it.

It should come as no surprise that data protection is becoming increasingly difficult as security professionals attempt to handle enormous amounts of data across numerous physical and virtual locations. So what are the best ways to protect your data?

What is Personal Data?

Any information that can directly or indirectly identify a specific person is referred to as personal data. Examples of personal information include:

●First and last name
●A valid email address
●Date of birth
●A Residence address
●Location data (e.g. mobile GPS tracking)
●Online identifiers (an IP address, cookies, etc.)

What Effects Would a Personal Data Breach Have?

If your company experiences a personal data breach, it means that either your employees’ or customers’ personal information has been taken or disclosed. Ransomware, phishing, human mistake, brute force, and even transactions on the dark web are some of the potential causes of this situation.

If this information falls into the wrong hands, it could lead to serious repercussions for the firm.

Three Steps to Data Safeguarding

There are several ways to protect personal information in your company. But if you’re unsure of where to start, try these 3 steps:

Step 1: Determine which personal data is contained in your company

Conducting a thorough analysis of the data you process is the first step in protecting the personal data processed by your company. This entails going through each department of your company and evaluating the data you have on file, including its purpose, continuity, and users.

Step 2: Ascertain that data platforms are safe

Unauthorized access is the largest danger to personal data. Cybercriminals cannot harm your company without access to this information. Therefore, it’s crucial to store all delicate and private data on a reliable cloud-based platform that provides you with all the security precautions required to keep data secure.

Making the right security and authorization settings for your data platforms is equally important to choosing the right platform. This could entail restricting system access to only selected team members or implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) to ensure that data cannot be compromised in the event of a credential leak.

Step 3: Adding additional security measures

System configurations and user permissions are only the beginning of security. When handling personal data, you must implement cutting-edge security technologies throughout your company that can identify threats as they try to breach your defenses and take appropriate action.

There are numerous methods available that can add another layer of security to your company’s defenses. They include:

●Transferring on-site data to the cloud.
●Introducing software for endpoint detection and reaction.
●Putting in place email security.
●Tracking data leaks on the dark web.
●Ensuring that software and hardware equipment are up to date.
●Disposing outdated data properly.
●Educating your employees about data security.