Data Security

Data security is the process of safeguarding digital information throughout its entire life cycle to protect it from corruption, theft, or unauthorized access. It covers everything—hardware, software, storage devices, and user devices; access and administrative controls; and organizations’ policies and procedures.

Data security uses tools and technologies that enhance visibility of a company’s data and how it is being used. These tools can protect data through processes like data masking, encryption, and redaction of sensitive information. The process also helps organizations streamline their auditing procedures and comply with increasingly stringent data protection regulations.

Why Is Data Security Important?

There are many reasons why data security is important to organizations in all industries all over the world. Organizations are legally obliged to protect customer and user data from being lost or stolen and ending up in the wrong hands. For example, industry and state regulations like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) outline organizations’ legal obligations to protect data.

Data cybersecurity is also crucial to preventing the reputational risk that accompanies a data breach. A high-profile hack or loss of data can result in customers losing trust in an organization and taking their business to a competitor. This also runs the risk of serious financial losses, along with fines, legal payments, and damage repair in case sensitive data is lost.

Benefits of Data Security

What is data security? In a way, data security is easier to define by looking at the benefits, which are explained in more detail below:

1. Keeps your information safe: By adopting a mindset focused on data security and implementing the right set of tools, you ensure sensitive data does not fall into the wrong hands. Sensitive data can include customer payment information, hospital records, and identification information, to name just a few. With a data security program created to meet the specific needs of your organization, this info stays safe and secure.
2. Helps keep your reputation clean: When people do business with your organization, they entrust their sensitive information to you, and a data security strategy enables you to provide the protection they need. Your reward? A stellar reputation among clients, partners, and the business world in general.
3. Gives you a competitive edge: In many industries, data breaches are commonplace, so if you can keep data secure, you set yourself apart from the competition, which may be struggling to do the same.
4. Saves on support and development costs: If you incorporate data security measures early in the development process, you may not have to spend valuable resources for designing and deploying patches or fixing coding problems down the road.

Data Security vs. Data Privacy

Data security and data privacy both involve protecting data, but they are different. Data security entails controlling access to data using stark, black-and-white terms. For example, a data security policy may dictate that no one other than someone troubleshooting a database issue is allowed to see customer payment information—period. In that way, you reduce your chances of suffering a data security breach.

Data privacy, on the other hand, involves more subtle, strategic decisions around who gets access to certain kinds of data. Using the same example, another organization may say, “Well, it may help the development team to know if a lot of customers have been paying using PayPal.

Here are some best practices that have been effective for other organizations:

Delete data you are not using: You should get rid of both digital and physical copies of data you no longer need. In this way, you reduce the chances of a hacker discovering it and using it for profit.

Secure your information: This means managing who has access and encrypting your data. Only people who need it to perform essential functions should have access, and information should be encrypted as it goes back and forth between the database and their computer or device.

Prepare ahead of time for threats: You can get ready for a potential data security incident by testing your system, educating employees, devising an incident management plan, and creating a data recovery plan.

Types of Data Security

Organizations can use a wide range of data security types to safeguard their data, devices, networks, systems, and users. Some of the most common types of data security, which organizations should look to combine to ensure they have the best possible strategy, include:

Encryption

Data encryption is the use of algorithms to scramble data and hide its true meaning. Encrypting data ensures messages can only be read by recipients with the appropriate decryption key. This is crucial, especially in the event of a data breach, because even if an attacker manages to gain access to the data, they will not be able to read it without the decryption key. 

Data Erasure

There will be occasions in which organizations no longer require data and need it permanently removed from their systems. Data erasure is an effective data security management technique that removes liability and the chance of a data breach occurring.

Data Masking

Data masking enables an organization to hide data by obscuring and replacing specific letters or numbers. This process is a form of encryption that renders the data useless should a hacker intercept it. The original message can only be uncovered by someone who has the code to decrypt or replace the masked characters.

Data Resiliency

Organizations can mitigate the risk of accidental destruction or loss of data by creating backups or copies of their data. Data backups are vital to protecting information and ensuring it is always available. This is particularly important during a data breach or ransomware attack, ensuring the organization can restore a previous backup.

Biggest Data Security Risks

Organizations face an increasingly complex landscape of security threats with cyberattacks being launched by more sophisticated attackers. Some of the biggest risks to data security include:

Accidental Data Exposure

Many data breaches are not a result of hacking but through employees accidentally or negligently exposing sensitive information. Employees can easily lose, share, or grant access to data with the wrong person, or mishandle or lose information because they are not aware of their company’s security policies.

Phishing Attacks

In a phishing attack, a cyber criminal sends messages, typically via email, short message service (SMS), or instant messaging services, that appear to be from a trusted sender. Messages include malicious links or attachments that lead recipients to either download malware or visit a spoofed website that enables the attacker to steal their login credentials or financial information. 

These attacks can also help an attacker compromise user devices or gain access to corporate networks. Phishing attacks are often paired with social engineering, which hackers use to manipulate victims into giving up sensitive information or login credentials to privileged accounts.

Insider Threats

One of the biggest data security threats to any organization is its own employees. Insider threats are individuals who intentionally or inadvertently put their own organization’s data at risk. They come in three types:

1. Compromised insider: The employee does not realize their account or credentials have been compromised. An attacker can perform malicious activity posing as the user.
2. Malicious insider: The employee actively attempts to steal data from their organization or cause harm for their own personal gain.
3. Nonmalicious insider: The employee causes harm accidentally, through negligent behavior, by not following security policies or procedures, or being unaware of them.

Malware

Malicious software is typically spread through email- and web-based attacks. Attackers use malware to infect computers and corporate networks by exploiting vulnerabilities in their software, such as web browsers or web applications. Malware can lead to serious data security events like data theft, extortion, and network damage.

Ransomware

Ransomware attacks pose a serious data security risk for organizations of all sizes. It is a form of malware that aims to infect devices and encrypt the data on them. The attackers then demand a ransom fee from their victim with the promise of returning or restoring the data upon payment. Some ransomware formats spread rapidly and infect entire networks, which can even take down backup data servers.

Cloud Data Storage

Organizations are increasingly moving data to the cloud and going cloud-first to enable easier collaboration and sharing. But moving data to the cloud can make controlling and protecting it against data loss more difficult. The cloud is critical to remote working processes, where users access information using personal devices and on less secure networks. This makes it easier to accidentally or maliciously share data with unauthorized parties.

Critical Data Security Solutions

There is a wide range of solutions available to help organizations protect their information and users. These include: 

Access Controls

Access controls enable organizations to apply rules around who can access data and systems in their digital environments. They do this through access control lists (ACLs), which filter access to directories, files, and networks and define which users are allowed to access which information and systems.

Cloud Data Security

As organizations increasingly move their data to the cloud, they need a solution that enables them to:

• Secure data while it is moving to the cloud
• Protect cloud-based applications

This is even more crucial for securing dynamic working processes as employees increasingly work from home.

Data Loss Prevention

Data loss prevention (DLP) enables organizations to detect and prevent potential data breaches. It also helps them detect exfiltration and unauthorized sharing of information outside the organization, gain improved visibility of information, prevent sensitive data destruction, and comply with relevant data regulations.

Email Security

Email security tools allow organizations to detect and prevent email-borne security threats. This plays an important role in stopping employees from clicking on malicious links, opening malicious attachments, and visiting spoofed websites. Email security solutions can also provide end-to-end encryption on email and mobile messages, which keeps data secure.

Key Management

Key management involves the use of cryptographic keys to encrypt data. Public and private keys are used to encrypt then decrypt data, which enables secure data sharing. Organizations can also use hashing to transform any string of characters into another value, which avoids the use of keys.Data Security Best Practices

An organization can take several steps in addition to the data security technologies above to ensure robust data security management.

Training: Employees should continually be trained on the best practices in data security. They can include training on password use, threat detection, and social engineering attacks. Employees who are knowledgeable about data security can enhance the organization’s role in safeguarding data.

External and internal firewalls: Using external and internal firewalls ensures effective data protection against malware and other cyberattacks.

Data security policy: An organization should adopt a clear and comprehensive data security policy, which should be known by all staff.

Data backup: Practicing backup of all data ensures the business will continue uninterrupted in the event of a data breach, software or hardware failure, or any type of data loss. Backup copies of critical data should be robustly tested to ensure adequate insurance against data loss. Furthermore, backup files should be subjected to equal security control protocols that manage access to core primary systems.

Data security risk assessment: it is prudent to carry out regular assessments of data security systems to detect vulnerabilities and potential losses in the event of a breach. The assessment can also detect out-of-date software and any misconfigurations needing redress.

Quarantine sensitive files: Data security software should be able to frequently categorize sensitive files and transfer them to a secure location.

Data file activity monitoring: Data security software should be able to analyze data usage patterns for all users. It will enable the early identification of any anomalies and possible risks. Users may be given access to more data than they need for their role in the organization. The practice is called over-permission, and data security software should be able to profile user behavior to match permissions with their behavior.

Application security and patching: Relates to the practice of updating software to the latest version promptly as patches or new updates are released.

Data Security Laws and Regulations

A growing number of countries and regions are adopting data security laws and regulations that are mainly focused on protecting personal data and guidance on usage and accessibility to all concerned. The regulations also aim to ensure that providers of personal data are treated fairly and sharing of data is done legitimately.

General Data Protection Regulation

In April 2016, the European Union (EU) adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires businesses and organizations that deal with personal data to protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens on transactions between member states.

Compliance with the GDPR focuses on data classification, especially on sensitive data, continuous monitoring, which requires reporting of data breach incidents within 72 hours, metadata management in terms of storage, the purpose of collection and regular data review, and lastly, data governance and access which controls authorizations to corporate data.

Data Security Trends

Quantum computing

Quantum computers use quantum phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to perform computations. It is likely to affect data security profoundly and pose a significant threat. Quantum technology will need to take the lead in transforming how we encrypt data now and bring quantum-proof solutions before quantum computers start breaking current data encryption.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) augments the capabilities of a data security system making it more efficient in handling increased amounts of data. AI works by simulating human thought processes or intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans. Adopting AI in data security enables swift decision-making during critical times.

Multi-cloud security

The multi-cloud security trend came about due to the adoption of cloud computing and storage. Therefore, multi-cloud security refers to a type of protection that extends beyond data to applications and processes that interact with cloud storage services.

Cyber Security vs. Data Security

Data security refers specifically to the protection of data, while cyber security is a broader term that encompasses the protection of any computing system, including networks, devices, and data. In other words, data security is a subset of cyber security.

The focus of data security is to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data. It involves measures to protect data from unauthorized access and corruption throughout its lifecycle. On the other hand, cyber security involves protecting the entire digital environment from cyber threats.

Despite these differences, data security and cyber security are closely related. A robust cyber security strategy must include data security measures. Similarly, effective data security contributes to the overall cyber security posture of an organization.

Conclusion

Data security are crucially important in the data-gathering process. The principles of trust, compliance, and ethical data practises rest on these two cornerstones. When people’s personal information is kept private, their rights are protected, and their data is used ethically, everyone wins.

In conclusion, data security is essential for protecting sensitive information and maintaining trust. By implementing a comprehensive data security program, organizations can significantly reduce the risk of data breaches and ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their data.

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