What makes Data Security Indispensable?
Data is nothing but a piece of useful/meaningful information an organization collects to make decisions and /stay connected with its customer. Data Security means protection of data that is stored in numerous databases and storages, from the unwanted actions of unauthorized users. For example, an organization’s financial data, internal company records are meaningful data and they can be stored on any computing device. Securing data from unauthorized access, by applying some set of principles hence becomes “MANDATORY”. Information Security or Computer Security are the other derivatives of Data Security.
With reference to the FSSI company records, major brands like J.P. Morgan Chase, Target and Home Depot faced serious cybersecurity breaches in 2013 and 2014. Sensitive information of almost 76 million customers of J.P. Morgan Chase was compromised during the breach. Big budgets do not ensure complete safety. ‘Cybersecurity becomes extremely crucial if one wants to protect their customers’ privacy and their company’s reputation. It does not matter whether a company does an online or an offline business, data security is still a core requirement for every organization. Data security also revolves around risk management. Predictable risks can be identified as follows:
- First of all, data is to safe from the physical and natural threats.
- Human errors during the listings and recordings to be identified.
- Exploit third-party activities in no time.
- Identify the areas of bugs and develop strategies for securing the information from such bugs and gaps.
Following are some standard practices for ensuring data security:
1. Disk Encryption- Converting the data into a form that cannot be easily read without a key that unlocks it.
2. Backups- Creating multiple copies of data at regular interval so it can be recovered if the original copy is lost.
3. Data Masking-Masking certain areas of data so sensitive information can be protected from unauthorized access.
4. Data Erasure-Ensuring data no longer in use is completely removed and cannot be recovered by unauthorized people.
Stringent processes should be put in place to cater to all the areas of security including the Policies and Procedures within an organization.
In today’s era, let’s look at the major Areas that needs to be Highly secure are;
1. Network Security
Having your network hacked or broken into can put your business in major jeopardy. Vandalism is another common type of attack. This typically involves planting of misleading or inappropriate information into the system. Network forms the backbone of any IT setup and should be a highly prioritized considering the growing threat of hackers trying to infect as many computers possible.
Another major incident made famous was that of Sony Pictures’ Network being hacked back in 2014 which was attributed to the North Korean government by FBI. More recently, a bunch Russian hackers backed by Ukrainian businesses and the government were accused of tampering with electoral voting systems in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Whilst no network today is fully immune to any kind of attack, a well devised and high quality Network Security system can reduce the risk massively. Following measures to be taken care of while implementing the network security:
- Protection of Client Data is paramount
- Protection Computers from Harmful Spyware, Malwares, Zero Day attacks
- Keeping Shared Data Secured and encrypted
- Traffic Monitoring and packet analysis
4 steps to protect your Network from attacks:
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- Implement– Implementation of Network Security system that provides protection through well-formulated and sufficient authorization policies.
- Analyze– The implemented system needs to be regularly analyzed to determine if the current rules and procedures are appropriate for the network it is protecting.
- Test– Conducting regular tests to make sure all of the securities are working and will completely protect your network against any threats. Benchmarking test results for future reference purposes.
- Modify– The regular test results will reveal where your security system is effective and where it can be improved. Gap analysis and remediation is an important part of the entire process. Hackers are ever evolving their attacking procedures, so it becomes mandatory to test your system frequently to remain in a protected state.
2. Cloud Security:
Are you someone who is Online or use the Social-network, I guess, today everyone is on Social Networking Site. Be it Facebook, Instagram, Gmail, Dropbox, Google drive. Bottom line is, if you are using any of these then certainly you are using cloud computing.
Cloud is nothing but virtual space for storing data. There’s no contesting the fact that storing information in the cloud has its benefits. After all, companies no longer have to invest in: (Big Servers, Large infrastructure, IT Staff). They can just get space with a cloud service provider like ESDS and work on a flexible pay-as-usage model.
Are you someone who is Online or use the Social-network, I guess, today everyone is on Social Networking Site. Be it Facebook, Instagram, Gmail, Dropbox, Google drive. Bottom line is, if you are using any of these then certainly you are using cloud computing.
Cloud is nothing but virtual space for storing data. There’s no contesting the fact that storing information in the cloud has its benefits. After all, companies no longer have to invest in: (Big Servers, Large infrastructure, IT Staff). They can just get space with a cloud service provider like ESDS and work on a flexible pay-as-usage model.
5 reasons Why Cloud Security Is Important
- Data Breaches are always a Big News. Hence protecting Data and its Users becomes critical
- Availability of data whenever needed. Backing up Data is Just as important
- Data sovereignty: Know where your Data is Stored
- Security Roles and procedures to be Clearly Defined
ESDS Cloud offering services has elicited significant interest and we are happy to say that it has helped our customers using the services in more secure manner.
3. Mobile Security
Today everyone is mobile and security mobility and end points hence is mandatory. Some of the processes one can follow are as follows:
- Backup regularly using the trusted backup resources.
- Setting up strong password policy so no one has direct access to your mobile.
- Physical damages are completely individual responsibilities. No amount of measures implemented in terms of technology can safeguard against physical damage.
As an organization, one really need to understand what is really at risk and then protect it. Sometimes the risks are generated from within when we’re least expecting it.
5 key principles that one must remember when it comes to protecting of one’s data.
1. Privacy: Enforcing data privacy by using encryption methodologies.
2. Integrity: Data integrity is a term used to refer to how accurate and reliable the data is. The prime objective should be to take secured backups and retrieval for enterprise data, and also prevent any delays in accessing the data.
3. Accessibility: Replication to an offsite provides immediate data recovery in case of a disaster. It not only saves the IT administrators’ time but also preserves network bandwidth and dramatically reduces the frequency of backup activities.
4. Responsibility: Security implementation should begin right from home. It is utmost important to educate employees about what is considered as confidential information, what information can or cannot be transmitted by email and how, such as by formulating security policies to review the content of outgoing email and attachments and/or using encryption to transmit the data. Therefore, protecting the company’s data is every employee’s responsibility.
5. Assessment Capacity:
Benefits of virtualization can be reaped as follows:
- Cost reduction in overall operation expenses
- Efficient use of underlying resources hence optimizing overall deployment
- Isolation for security purposes.
Stay tuned on ESDS blog site for my next blog which will give Insights about How to safeguard the organization from Internal Threats.
- Safeguarding your Organization from Internal Threats - September 19, 2018
- What makes Data Security Indispensable? - September 17, 2018
- Arrival of Vignaharta in ESDS - September 17, 2018
