Essential Steps for Comprehensive Data Protection in Businesses

Your company’s sensitive data is at a greater risk than ever before. Modern cyberattacks rarely look like questionable email attachments. Sophisticated hackers disguise malicious programs, hiding them deep in systems. Or they might create fake accounts that mimic real ones to fool your employees.

No matter its size, you must protect your business against cyberattacks on your systems, devices, and websites. In addition, a data recovery plan is necessary to recover after a potential breach. 

Assessing Your Company’s Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities

Every company is vulnerable to attacks. The key is determining if any data threats are unique to your business. To understand this, you must assess all data risks in your company’s functions. 

Any breach in financial, legal, and confidential data can put your company underwater or out of business. This is even more critical when customer data is compromised, which could be a primary threat for e-commerce and digital advertising projects. Data protection affects your company’s marketing efforts. Areas of concern include:

• Email: Phishing is how many hackers steal data and get into critical systems. Have your IT provider secure emails with backups, mail licenses, multi-factor authentication, anti-virus, anti-spam, and anti-phishing filters. Educate employees on how to avoid phishing attempts. Businesses should also implement cloud email security protection to be careful of malicious links, which are often used in phishing attempts and can compromise e-commerce sites.
• Customer Data: A breach in customer data poses a threat to your client’s security and your brand reputation. Privacy and security are at the forefront of customer transactions, so it’s crucial to be upfront with your clients and have a plan in place if disaster strikes.
• Disasters: When a breach occurs in any area, a crisis management plan helps you address the issue immediately. It includes data protection policies, employee training, and enlisting a secure IT company that specializes in cybersecurity and disaster recovery. 

Additionally, smart cameras pose cybersecurity and privacy concerns. Any device that transmits video over the internet, like security and doorbell cameras, employs AI so that users can use footage. Some of the vulnerable functions these AI-powered cameras perform include:

• Facial recognition;
• Object delivery tracking;
• License plate identification.

When transmitted across the internet, this data is vulnerable to hacking, malware, and other data breaches. Since it’s password-protected, easily cracked passwords pose a risk. Some of these devices also lack encryption, which protects transmissions sent over the Internet. Finally, unauthorized users may illegally access these lines, providing them with a view of your facilities.

These security challenges aren’t impossible to overcome, however. Protect critical data by working with IT firms that have a solid track record in cybersecurity. Use secure cloud services to protect your data. Additionally, select smart cameras and other devices that use encryption. Your management teams should also write comprehensive security policies and train your staff on them.

There is no greater risk to your data than breaches. However, there is another area that is critical to safeguard: your website.

Keeping Your Website Safe From Data Breaches

Websites are especially vulnerable to data breaches since they are often the primary point of contact for customers and consumers. It takes investment to website data breach-free, but the alternative is much more destructive.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a set of standards adopted in the European Union in 2016 to regulate data that can notify you of a breach. It is meant to protect customers, and companies worldwide often comply with these standards.

Beyond that, it may be difficult to assess if your systems have been breached without the best monitoring and prevention systems. Essential security elements include:

• High-quality and comprehensive firewalls to secure data;
• Multiple authentication protocols, such as two-step authentication, to ensure security;
• SSL protection to protect data during transmission;
• Periodic security audits to assess vulnerabilities and ensure systems are functioning properly;
• Installing malware protection software to scan devices before allowing connectivity.

Management can take additional steps to protect sensitive data by creating policies to safeguard against cyberattacks, such as banning social media and putting corporate data on personal devices. Take the time to educate employees on these policies, as well as topics like GDPR and secure password creation. 

Be sure that your IT department is following safe data protocols, too. Software and plugins must be up to date. If a system is too old to update, consider replacing it. Take any such recommendations from your IT department seriously and adjust your budget accordingly. Finally, have a reliable data backup system to restore lost or corrupted data.

Preventive measures are necessary but even so, you may still experience a cyberattack. That's why every company should have a data breach recovery plan. 

Recovering from a Data Breach

When a breach happens, a data breach recovery plan will help you spring into action immediately should something go awry. It provides a recovery process to quickly solve the breach and secure your data. It can also help your company weather legal ramifications, reduce consequences, and regain trust.

Start your preparations by defining a breach so that you can take the right actions at the right time. These plans should document the steps to contain and manage a data breach, including staff assignments and the chain of command. They should also cover various approaches to secure the breach and the requisite staffing to deal with the problem.

Assign a point person to manage notifying the affected stakeholders, including customers. It’s crucial to define the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the recovery process and to document and track any incidents. This can help you refine the process and potentially implement additional security procedures.

How do you recover from a data security breach? Take action as soon as you know about the breach. Time is of the essence. It can take an average of 200 days to become aware of the security issue and over two months to resolve it. Once discovered, you must report the breach to the required regulatory authorities, if any, to safeguard your company from additional legal ramifications. Notify your legal team right away. You will need their guidance to steer through the crisis. 

You also must step up security around all your systems, especially in affected areas. This may involve budgeting for a systems overhaul and hiring a cybersecurity specialist. In addition, the parties who had their data breached will need your support with resources like credit monitoring and identity theft protection. The more you can offer, the faster you can reclaim your reputation.

Conclusion

The only way to protect data from cyber threats is to build comprehensive data protection systems. Assess your vulnerabilities, defend your systems with protective measures, and have a plan for potential data breaches. Together, these preparations will safeguard your firm and see it through any crisis.

Featured image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay