How to Keep Data Secure

Data is your most valuable asset as it offers insight for making strategic decisions and helps you build stronger relationships with customers and partners. It can also be a liability when you don’t take the necessary steps to protect it.

Data breaches can cost companies millions of dollars. They can also damage the brand value, erode confidence and result in regulatory penalties. While data breaches are inevitable, there are steps you can do to reduce the risk and safeguard your data from cybercriminals.

1. Authenticate users and authorize them.

Data security requires a robust authentication and authorization process to ensure that only authorized individuals can access your data. This can be achieved by using two or more types of identification to gain access to your information, such as something they are familiar with (passwords and security tokens), something they have (electronic devices and other hardware) or something they are (biometrics like fingerprints and facial recognition).

2. Encrypt everything.

The most sensitive data you have is classified information. Its unauthorized disclosure could have serious implications for your company or the people affected. To safeguard classified information, it should always be protected and encrypted by a decryption code that is only accessible to authorized personnel. The classifications should be re-evaluated regularly and your team should establish an encryption policy that governs the management of encryption keys to ensure they are not compromised.

3. Reduce non-essential data access.

Most employees do not need access to all information of your company. This decreases the chance of a security breach since it decreases the number of possible entry points for threats. It can be a good idea to restrict access to minimum amount of data article needed for a job, and also to use the user ID to restrict access to data even if usernames and passwords are stolen.