Businesses have been collecting, processing, and utilizing more data in 2023 than in any previous year in history. The last decade has seen the frenetic growth of data generation and usage, with businesses around the globe investing in data warehouses and other architecture to increase the amount of information they can store.
By 2026, global spending on digital transformation will reach upwards of $3.4 trillion, demonstrating how central the technological capacities of organizations have become. The reasoning behind this is simple: companies that employ data-driven decision-making are more profitable compared to companies that don’t.
Yet, to make use of company data to its fullest extent, businesses need to ensure that they have effective methods of data protection. Depending on the sector a business works in, data protection could pose more of a comprehensive challenge, with certain fields like healthcare requiring another layer of sensitive data protection.
In this article, we’ll explore data protection in business environments, demonstrating the leading strategies that companies can employ to keep customer and business data as secure as possible.
What is data protection?
Data protection is an umbrella term that covers internal business processes that help to reduce the likelihood of data breaches, unauthorized access to data, and the loss of company information. When ensuring that data is adequately protected, different industries will also have a range of compliance initiatives to follow.
The vast majority of companies will have to follow the local data protection legislation of their area. For companies in Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) framework outlines core practices they must abide by and instill in their business. Different regions will have a main dominating data protection regulation.
Alongside regional compliance, businesses in certain fields will have to follow industry-based compliance regulations for their data. These regulations could range from ensuring that businesses have effective authorization protocols in place to providing proof of a comprehensive cybersecurity solution.
What are the key methods of data protection in business environments?
With how expansive data protection is, it’s hard to know exactly where to start. For newer businesses, beginning to implement a compliance framework as extensive as the GDPR can pose a challenge.
To get a running start, here are some core data protection methods that your business can include:
Backups and data recovery initiatives
The single best tool a business can count on in the face of a data disaster event is a healthy and accessible backup. Backups provide a fail-safe copy of data that companies can utilize and restore if anything goes wrong with their current system. For example, if a business falls into a ransomware scheme, they have another option that allows them to continue working rather than only having the option of bargaining with the malicious actors.
Equally, backups prevent data loss on a massive scale. We all assume that we’ll never have to experience a sudden and seemingly random data loss event. However, they’re more common than one might think, making having a backup to fall back on more important than ever.
There’s a reason that 90% of companies back up their data – this is a vital step when ensuring the overall protection of data.
Authorization and Access Control
Authorization and access control are two of the most fundamental approaches when providing a secure system for data storage. Access control is the process of assigning every user in your system with a specific role or level within your business. Depending on their role, they will have access to a different number of files or areas of files.
For example, a network administrator may have access to every single document that a business stores in its data warehouse, while a member of the sales team might only have access to sales-related documents and processes. This distinction ensures that if a malicious actor were to gain access to a user account, they wouldn’t be able to harvest all of the data from your system, being limited by the associated role of the account.
Another effective layer to add to this solution is authorization. Authorization mechanisms will ask users to prove their identities when logging into your company accounts. Most of the time, this process will use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), which asks a user to confirm their identity on their mobile phone or another connected device.
MFA helps to reduce the likelihood of an attacker gaining entry into your system. Although they may harvest account and password details, they won’t be able to go any further as they don’t have access to a second device.
Authorization and access control systems are a wonderful addition to any secure data storage environment.
Encryption
Encryption is one of the most important elements of effective data protection strategies as it ensures that data is unreadable to anyone who may intercept it. Encryption encodes data, only revealing the data to parties with the correct decryption key. These keys are automatically passed between your end-to-end systems, allowing businesses a high level of security without the hassle of needing to wait for decryption.
Yet, if your data is involved in a breach or intercepted by a third party, then it will simply appear as ciphertext, a long string of random characters that is nearly impossible to decipher. By ensuring that you have encryption protocols in all of your data storage facilities, you will simultaneously meet the requirements of the GDPR and other compliance bodies while also making your data harder to access for unauthorized parties.
Encryption is a must-have in the world of data protection.
Final Thoughts
If a business wants to reap the benefits from data collection, processing, and analytics, then it must also be prepared to take on the extensive data protection strategies and compliance frameworks in place. These recommendations and requirements help businesses to protect customer data and avoid the potentiality of a data breach.
Considering that losing customer data and being involved in a data breach can have significant consequences on revenue, brand trust, and reputation, it’s always a good idea to make data protection a top organizational priority
