Data is crucial to any company. It allows it to run efficiently and profitably. Businesses must balance the need to have a lot of data with the requirement to secure and protect customer data. The GDPR in Europe and California’s CCPA are driving this issue, as are long-standing laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and Securities and Exchange Commission rules which protect shareholders’ financial data and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
The first step to ensuring security of your data is to categorize and safeguard all of your data. This involves identifying and classifying data according to its sensitivity level and determining access levels. It is also essential to establish a policy that protects your data even when the data is in motion or at rest. Using a solution that detects and monitors the activity of files and detect anomalous patterns can help you spot suspicious activity and quickly identify and mitigate vulnerabilities, including incorrectly configured software and out-of-date applications.
A complete backup and recovery plan that includes physical storage media is essential. Last but not least it is crucial to ensure that you have a solid system of security, ranging from background checks for new hires to periodic trainings for existing employees, and even terminating employees that no longer require access to critical systems. It is also essential to establish a disaster recovery plan to ensure that your data is safe in the event of a natural or human-caused catastrophe.
