Data is crucial to any company. It allows it to function efficiently and profitably. However, businesses must keep in mind the necessity of having access to and plentiful data with the obligation to keep customer information private and secure. The GDPR in Europe and California’s CCPA are driving additional resources this issue, as are long-standing laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and Securities and Exchange Commission rules which safeguard financial information of shareholders and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
The first step in ensuring the security of your data is to catalogue and safeguard all of your data. This includes identifying and classifying data according to its sensitivity level and determining access levels. It is also essential to create a security policy which protects data even when it’s in motion or at rest. Using a solution to monitor and detect activity in your files and spot anomalous patterns will help you detect suspicious activity, and swiftly identify and reduce vulnerabilities that could be a result of outdated or misconfigured software.
A comprehensive backup and recovery plan that includes physical storage media is crucial. Lastly, it’s important to ensure that security measures are effective that include background checks on prospective employees and regular training for employees in place to the decision to terminate employees who no longer need 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 man-made catastrophe.