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Sensitive company data: How to secure it?

With the fast-paced advancement of technology, the collection and management of data have become crucial for every business. Establishing robust data security measures is the key to ensuring long-term business success, despite the challenges involved.

What is sensitive data? 

Protecting sensitive data is one of the primary challenges for modern organizations. This data is valuable and confidential, and it must be safeguarded against unauthorized access, theft, or misuse. Depending on your priorities, sensitive data can be anything from basic personal information, clients’ accounts, a confidential business agreement, or unreleased product files.

The exposure of sensitive data can subject a company to significant risks, including financial loss, legal action, and damage to its reputation.

Types of data threats

Data Theft

Data Theft refers to the illegal transfer or storage of personal, confidential, or financial information. This can result in severe legal, reputational, and financial damages for both individuals and organizations. Attackers may use various methods such as hacking, phishing, or malware to steal sensitive data.

Data Leaks

Similar to data theft in that it involves the unauthorized transfer or storage of critical data. Data leakage often occurs accidentally. For example, an inexperienced employee may send confidential company data to the wrong recipient, or their email address and devices. This can result in legal penalties and severe reputational damage for the company. Data leakage can also happen through insecure cloud storage, misconfigured databases, or weak access controls.

Data Loss

Data loss occurs when critical data becomes inaccessible due to various reasons, including:

  • Mechanical Failure: IT system hardware malfunctions can lead to data loss.
  • Computer Viruses: Malware can corrupt or delete important data.
  • Human Error: Mistakes like accidental deletion or overwriting of files can result in data loss.
  • Hard Drive Errors: Physical damage or logical corruption of hard drives can render data inaccessible.
  • Power Outages: Sudden power loss can cause unsaved data to be lost and damaged storage media.

While data recovery might be possible, it is often expensive and not guaranteed to restore all lost information. Regular data backups and robust disaster recovery plans are essential to mitigate the impact of data loss.

Insider Threats

Insider threats involve employees or third parties who have access to company data and misuse it, either maliciously or accidentally. This can include:

  • Malicious Insiders: Intentionally stealing or damaging data for personal gain or to harm the organization.
  • Negligent Insiders: Unintentionally causing data breaches due to lack of awareness or failure to follow security protocols.
  • Compromised Insiders: Employees whose accounts are hijacked by external attackers, leading to unauthorized data access.

How to secure sensitive data

Securing sensitive data is a multifaceted challenge that requires a combination of robust technology, well-defined policies, and continuous education. 

Implementing strong access controls is a critical first step, ensuring that only authorized personnel can access sensitive information. Encryption plays a vital role in protecting data both at rest and in transit, making it unreadable to unauthorized users. Regular software updates and patch management help close vulnerabilities that attackers might exploit. Conducting frequent security audits, both internal and external, can identify and rectify potential security gaps. Employee training is also essential, as human error remains a significant risk; in fact, recent studies show that 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error. Additionally, data loss prevention (DLP) tools and regular data backups ensure that, in the event of a data loss incident, recovery is possible without significant disruption. Finally, developing and regularly updating a comprehensive incident response plan ensures that, should a breach occur, the organization can respond quickly and effectively to mitigate damage.

How does DataPatrol help you protect your sensitive data?

DataPatrol provides organizations with innovative solutions to tackle an often overlooked vulnerability in data protection: data breaches through screens. The Screen Watermark solution applies dynamic customized watermarks to all desktop end users with metadata about the logged-in user. This solution is a simple yet effective measure to prevent unauthorized data exposure. By deterring potential leaks, ensuring accountability, enabling traceability, and enhancing security in remote work environments. Screen watermarking plays a crucial role in protecting sensitive information from being improperly shared or distributed.

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