Information security is very vital to an organization’s growth and existence, for a breach of the same can cause the business huge losses and worse, even close down. Keeping a track of all potential threats, legislation and latest security issues is however not easy and require one to maintain a proper and updated , among other security measures.
A business organization can face both internal and external threats when it comes to the security of its data. While traditional measures like firewalls, changing passwords frequently, etc. may be effective, they are not foolproof against many of the new age threats that organizations face today. Evolving technologies and increasing connectivity have made the job of penetrating your data security much easier for hackers.
In this blog, we look at some potential measures you can implement to maximize your data security.
1. Implement Restricted Access
Restricting the type of data your employees can access can go a long way in ensuring your data’s security. It may take just a single upset employee to share your company’s business secret to your competitors or worse to share your confidential customer data with others. A customer data breach will not only cause you loss of business and goodwill in the market but also open you up to highly damaging lawsuits.
Another good practice, when it comes to restricting data access to employees, is to restrict the time they can access it and also the duration of each access. This will help you pinpoint the exact moment a particular database was accessed and who was accessing it. Knowing their access is being watched and monitored will deter many employees from stealing and misusing company data.
2. Set a password changing schedule
Surprisingly, most of the data breach situations occur due to employees accessing the data, using their old password even after they leave the organization.
Having a firm and well-monitored password-changing policy will go a long way in keeping your data more secure and preventing unlawful access to it.
While this may seem like a simple and routine policy, it is the timely and thoughtful implementation of the same that counts. Setting up systems, which auto-reset an employee’s passwords after a particular period will get employees into the password changing habit and help keep your data more secure.
3. Don’t just invest in firewalls
While external threats to your data security are a constant worry, just setting up firewalls will not do. Hackers and data security experts can bypass your firewalls easily to get access to your data. Implementing a robust and technologically updated complete security system with different layers of protection built-in is the answer.
Make sure that you have built-in alarms and auto-notifications to your IT security team, like , in case there is a breach so that they can shut down the whole system, thereby restricting access to your confidential and private data. Every organization that collects and stores customer data should invest in the latest security systems that are compliant and in line with government regulations, to prevent any fallout from the data breach and be adequately covered by insurance.
4. Using the latest encryption technologies
A data security breach can happen anywhere, be it your assistant’s desktop or the laptops your sales team is using in the field. With an ever-growing reliance on mobile apps to manage business needs, your mobile phone too could be a source of a potential security breach.
To avoid such scenarios, it is advisable to use the latest data encryption technologies to encrypt and secure the data at all ends.
5. Get your security tested by professional, ethical hackers
If you want to test your organization’s data security, your best bet would be to use professional hackers who hack into an organization’s network to test its security. Professional hackers have the knowledge and expertise on how unethical hackers would approach your network to access its data.
By examining and testing your data security from all angles, they would be able to easily point out the loopholes in your security and how you can ensure there are no gaps in it. Testing your organization’s data security should however not be a one-time process or something that you conduct just once a year. It should be an ongoing process, with security being checked more often.
This will ensure that all the new users or computers being added to your network are security compliant and have been checked professionally for any potential breaches, which may occur due to employee mistakes or hackers manipulating your systems.
6. Build an independent dedicated team for your organization’s data security
With new technologies and software’s constantly evolving, it may become difficult for an organization to be 100% security proof all the time. In such scenarios, it makes sense to have a full-time, dedicated team that works independently in building and maintaining your organization’s readiness against internal and external threats to your data.
Being independent and accountable only to the organization’s top management will ensure that they do not face any restraints in their work, have the required resources, and can share their results directly and confidentially.
Conclusion
Of all the threats and risks an organization faces, nothing can be more damaging or loss incurring than a data breach. Apart from the organization, there may even be privacy and data security issues for the customers, whose data has been leaked, resulting in potential lawsuits against the organization.
The threat to data security can either be external through the internet and office networks or even internal through unrestricted data access to employees, forgotten passwords, lack of data encryption, etc. To combat these hazards, an organization needs to ensure it has dedicated teams and resources safeguarding against data theft.
Taking timely action to prevent data theft occurrences and investing in the best data security systems, which can be independently monitored and managed is one of the best solutions to maximize an organization’s data security.