Protect Your Data (Try These 5 Security Solutions)
The modern business infrastructure has evolved a great deal in terms of planning and expanding its horizon according to the needs of respective clients. Using business data to make data-driven, informed decisions has helped enterprises scale their networks on a new level.
With the increased utility of data, it’s worth has also multiplied. As an uncovered sweet attracts flies and germs, similarly unprotected data repositories act as an open invitation to digital attackers to steal your valuable data and information.
What Is Business Data?
Any smallest fragment of information that holds some value for the day-to-day processes of an enterprise is called business data. The information can be as complex as an accounting ledger and as elementary as a list of clients.
Technically, all kinds of data that a business collects for operations, sales planning, marketing, or human resource purposes comprises business data. Data holds the key to modern business development and increased revenue.
Businesses are now more than ever investing in methods, software, and hardware solutions that can help them collect and organize large amounts of data. Business data is collected from multiple sections according to their roles in the enterprise.
The most common data types that businesses collect are
- Information from customers in the form of questionnaires and email marketing.
- Statistics relating to sales and profits/losses faced by the businesses
- Inventory data and product details.
Enterprises are actively hiring business data analysts to help them and create a sense out of the collected data. Ultimately the findings are then used to restructure business goals and areas of focus according to the indicators highlighted by the business data.
Need to Protect Data
Data collection and analysis is just the first half of business data management, the second and equally crucial part is ensuring that data is safely stored. To develop a fully dynamic data protection system in your business, it is necessary to understand the possible consequences of a data breach.
- Damage to reputation
Once an enterprise experiences a data breach, the client’s trust is compromised. Existing clients tend to move to another competition that has not suffered a cyber attack. New customers always prefer to opt for a service or business which does not have a stain of data breach to its face. Meaning that the business value you struggled to construct all those years could lose worth instantly, leading to brand disloyalty and defamation. - Economic damage
Data breaches have extreme effects on the financial standing of a business. The scale of financial damage is proportionate to the business size. Analysis of the economic effects of a data breach shows that in the US alone, a typical data breach has cost businesses around 9.44 million USD. A factor to consider here is if a data breach is detected and stopped in earlier stages, the associated costs are also lowered to a very reasonable amount. - Hefty fines
Data protection legislation like the GDPR in the EU and many state-specific data protection laws in the US oblige businesses to ensure data privacy frameworks. In case of a data breach, businesses are prone to litigation and heavy fines. Most businesses that have been victims of cyberattacks and consumer data loss resulting in legal actions and fines cannot stand back on their feet.
To effectively protect your data, implementing comprehensive privileged account management is essential as it allows you to securely manage and monitor privileged user accounts, reducing the risk of data breaches and ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive information.
Security Solutions to Protect Data
Now that an understanding of the importance of data protection and the consequences of a data breach has developed. Let’s have a look at these 5 simple yet effective data security solutions.
- CASB
The cloud access security broker (CASB) is an intermediary software for security policy implementation and regulatory compliance. A cloud access security broker software is placed between a cloud service (SaaS) provider and the user. SaaS security is also ensured by cloud access security brokers to provide protection to the digital tools that most business processes require. - IAM
The IAM (Identity and Access Management) security system scrutinizes the access and identity of the individuals trying to enter your organizational network. You can use IAM to manage the privileges assigned to roles within your organization and verify the users’ identities. - SIEM
The main purpose behind implementing SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) security in business networks is that SIEM enables early threat detection. The user can recognize a potential threat before providing it with an opportunity to damage the enterprise network. There are three key roles of a SIEM solution, detection, compliance, and incident management. - VPN
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) allows users to access the internet through a private network allowing the user to maintain anonymity. Additionally, VPNs serve as a backdoor to bypass geographic censorship. - DLP
Data loss prevention (DLP) is a security solution centered on insider threats to organizational data. Basically, DLP is a combination of techniques and technologies that classify data in different files according to the nature of the data. Network DLP software, endpoint DLP software, and cloud DLP software are its three types.
Conclusion
Data has become the most valuable asset of a firm, and its protection and security hold the key to a fruitful business. Unfortunately, malicious actors are trying day and night to access and steal your business data. This data may include customer information, personal data, or trade secrets.
Protecting this valuable data should be the top concern of any firm, given the ramifications of a data breach. A good cybersecurity infrastructure will protect your data and save your business from losing its value due to a data breach and improve brand loyalty.
