Data Privacy and Security: Best Practices for Protecting Sensitive Information

 The world we live in has successfully been digitized. 

We rely on smartphones and computers for every little thing in our lives. While there are many upsides to this, the downside is the blatant availability of our personal information online.

Imagine swiping a credit card to order a dress for your upcoming party, and a hacker seizes your information, swindling your hard-earned money. 

This is why securing data is super important.

While common people can resort to VPNs, HTTPs, and anti-virus and anti-malware software, businesses turn to data management service providers to manage and monitor their data as well as flag any threats that might steal their data. 

In an increasingly digital world, the more time we spend online, the more data we leave online, and the more vulnerable we are to malicious hackers. 

If you’re a business, hiring data engineering service providers, and looking for the best ways to maintain a full-proof data landscape, we’ve the bible you need. 

Safeguard Your Data: Embrace These 10 Essential Practices

Understanding Data Sensitivity

The starting point is understanding what constitutes sensitive data.

This can range from personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and financial details, to confidential business information like trade secrets, proprietary data, and internal communications. 

Data sensitivity refers to the level of risk a piece of information poses. If you find this piece of information highly sensitive, you can establish a robust line of defense to safeguard this data and vice-versa for less sensitive data. 

Implementing Strong Access Controls

Establishing access controls is imperative to make sure only relevant people can access information. Among a range of access controls, some of the prominent ones are: 

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Assigning permissions based on the role and the scope of responsibilities of an individual within the organization. Employees must have access to data that’s necessary for their job functions. 

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Enhancing the layer of security by requiring users to provide two or more ways of authentication to get access to the data resource.

Regular Access Reviews: Auditing access logs and permissions to ensure their relevance and appropriateness as roles and responsibilities change. 

Encrypting Data

Encryption is of the essence when it comes to securing data. It translates data into a unique code, which can’t be accessed by someone with no authorization. Encryption must be at play for: 

• Data at Rest: Any data that rests on a computer hard drive, databases, or some other storage devices. 
• Data in Transit: Any data that travels over a network. Encryption can be established via SSL and TLS to safeguard data while it’s being transmitted from a sender to the intended recipient. 

Keeping Software Up to Date

Using old, obsolete software isn’t safe because it has hidden vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers. 

Keeping an eye on the latest updates and integrating them with the existing systems periodically means that one has the most recent and robust barriers against common threats. 

Implementing automatic updates wherever possible eliminates the need to constantly manually update for security reasons.

Educating Employees

One of the primary causes that cause data breaches is human errors. It’s crucial to teach employees about data privacy and keep them up to speed with ever-evolving security procedures. This includes: 

• Phishing Awareness: Educating employees on how to identify phishing emails and report them.
• Secure Password Practices: Promoting the adoption of quality passwords and the adoption of password managers.
• Data Handling Protocols: Ensuring that the teaching staff are well aware of the right procedures to adopt when handling, storing, and disposing of sensitive information.

Implementing Data Minimization

Data minimization refers to the process of collecting data necessary for a specific function and retaining it as long as required for the efficient execution. 

It helps minimize the amount of data lying across the enterprise that could get exposed in the event of any cyber attack. Regularly auditing data collection practices can help ensure compliance with this principle.

Creating an Incident Response Plan

Despite the availability of best-of-breed preventive measures, organizations are still vulnerable to data breaches. This is why it’s highly advisable to have a well-elaborate incident response plan that can help contain the damage. This plan should include:

• Identification: Faster recognition and confirmation of the breach.
• Containment: Mitigating the extent and spread of the breach.
• Eradication: Eradicating the root cause of the breach.
• Recovery: The process of bringing disrupted systems and data back to their functional states.
• Post-Incident Analysis: Reflecting and analyzing the event to find out what went well or wrong and how it could be done better next time.

Using Secure Communication Channels

When disclosing sensitive information, one should ensure that the methods of communication they are using are safe and reliable. 

This may encompass techniques such as encrypted messages, safe transmission of documents, and use of virtual private connections, such as VPNs for telecommuting. 

These measures foster the protection of data when in the process of being communicated.

Regularly Conducting Security Audits

Security audits are essential as they provide an insight into potential risk factors in your system and procedures. 

Of course, you can perform security audits on your own, or you can invite data management service providers to check how your security system works and what can be improved. 

At the same time, the implementation of the recommendations from these audits can further improve data protection measures.

Meeting Legal and Regulatory Standard

Implementing and following data protection standards like the GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, among others isn’t a matter of just staying away from penalties. Fulfilling obligations reflects an organization’s commitment to the protection of its data and may serve to build rapport with customers and/or business associates. 

Information concerning the subsequent changes in legislation is critical and should be integrated into the practices.

Hire Data Management Services to Put a Ring Around Your Data

Information security is an ongoing process and is best done when everyone across the board is on the same page, has the necessary training, and goes by the rules. 

These data protection measures, if implemented, can help organizations tick off the right boxes and have a well-guarded, full-proof, and disruption-ready data landscape always poised for continuity. 

At the time when data is becoming more important than oil, its protection isn’t just an IT-related issue but one of critical necessities of making a business exist and function. 

Data engineering services providers understand the ramifications of keeping your data unprotected and are well-versed in measures, practices, and tools that can safeguard your data at all times. Backed by domain expertise and market insight, these function ahead of the curve and take care of your end-to-end requirements, from data curation, analysis, organization, management, and maintenance. 

If you’re a business and have no clue about how to protect your data, hire data management service providers today!