Let’s Talk about the Data Security in Business. Did you know that cybercrime has risen by 600% during the coronavirus pandemic? Malicious parties masqueraded as the World Health Organization or the Center for Disease Control. They did this to get companies and individuals to share sensitive data and donate money.
Research by McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies indicate that cybercrime led to a staggering $1 trillion in losses during 2020. Forecasts show that if companies aren’t careful with their data security in business, there can be a whopping US$6 trillion loss due to cybercrime in 2021. This figure will skyrocket to $10.5 trillion by 2025!
As a budding business, you need to do all you can to maintain the integrity of data security in the business. In this article, we’ll take a look at what data security in business entails. Then we will consider the different types of data security you need to focus on and how they can make your business vulnerable if you’re not careful. Finally, we look at how you can improve your data security in the business.
Let’s get started:
Data security in business is one of the pivotal considerations for every organization. A business that is not up to mark on its security issues, will find itself extremely vulnerable to attacks. Consider the following examples:
These are just a few of the thousands of cybercrimes that have occurred in the world today. No matter what way cybercriminals choose to attack you, the end result is the same if you don’t pay attention to data security in business:
All of this can put your company back by years and make it exceptionally hard to succeed. In fact, here’s something very concerning – 60% of SMEs go bankrupt and shut their doors permanently, within 6 months of experiencing a cybercrime attack!
Investing in data security in business can prevent this terrible fate from befalling you.
Data security in business involves securing numerous facets of your company’s technology. A single crack in the wall can bring down the entire dam when it comes to lax data security in business.
So, what types of data security in business do you need to consider when fortifying your company against cybercriminals?
Internet-based cybercriminal activity can affect us in numerous ways. From hackers bringing down internet connectivity to a specific region to hijackers taking control of certain website domains, servers, or networks, there’s much that can go wrong. So, it’s really essential to invest in the right internet security package. These cybersecurity solutions will protect you by securing your internet browsers and websites.
You’ll be able to tell if the website is secure or not if you see this “https”. The “s” represents that your internet browsers and websites are protected from attack. Additionally, you’ll notice a padlock symbol on the right-hand-side corner of the browser and this also indicates that your internet security is fortified.
Network security comprises of securing your collection of hardware and software technologies. If any of these components are exposed, it’ll act like the perfect gateway for any hacker or malicious criminal to tap into your security vulnerabilities.
Dedicated network security solutions can offer layers of protection to prevent intruders from entering your network. These security solutions prevent malware and viruses from entering your networks and affecting your day-to-day functioning.
Endpoints refer to all those points of contact/connection, where you plug in your devices. Sometimes, cybercriminals can infect endpoints or ports. When you plug your laptop, tablet, or mobile phone into that endpoint, your device is attacked by malicious criminal technology. For example, let’s say one of your employees is in the airport and is traveling for a meeting out of town. They decide to charge their laptop in the publicly available charging port. This infected endpoint can transfer something vicious (like ransomware) and affect all the sensitive and confidential documents your employee has on the laptop.
Endpoint attacks also happen over the internet. So, let’s say that your employee decides to join the free public Wi-Fi connection when they’re at the airport. The moment they do so, they’ll make their device vulnerable to attack through the public internet.
Endpoint security solutions will ensure that your business-related devices will never be put at risk when they come in touch with endpoints of any kind.
Now that we’ve seen the types of data security in business you need, let’s look at what types of security controls you should administer to protect your company and your customers:
People, software, or devices that are unauthorized to access your systems & databases, can cause a lot of harm. When you’re implementing data security in business, you should put in place security that can facilitate access control through identity authentication. This way, only those who are identified by your security measures as being authorized to access something, will be allowed to access it.
Typically, identity authentication & access control is done according to three characteristics:
Some types of viruses and malware cause your entire network to crash and the data to get erased. If you don’t have a data backup and recovery solution, you’ll be at risk of permanently losing your important data. Such a scenario can be very debilitating to your company.
Encryption is the process of coding the true message in data, as something entirely different. A special alphanumeric key is used to encrypt the data. Depending on the sophistication of the encryption, the data can be decrypted using the same key or a different key.
Tokens are security devices that employees must possess if they want to access company resources. In tokenization, the restricted resources are tokenized to give access only when the user possesses the tokens.
Data masking is a good technique for data security in the business. Here, the data is masked by proxy numbers and letters. The authorization for unmasking the data is given only to those who have been granted access to the data.
This is an option for data security in business when you have years of unwanted data clogging your system. Sometimes companies forget the data of old customers or closed accounts and do not delete the data. This data is still lying, collecting dust, and is easy to hack into by criminals. To prevent this data from getting compromised, you should schedule a permanent data deletion of unused accounts/folders every few years. This could include everything from wiping your computer’s memory to destroying hard disks to clearing your cache & cookies and more.
In addition to the above steps, here are a few more ways you can establish data security in the business. You can share these tips with your employees too, to ensure they maintain business security practices:
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