6 Data Security Best Practices for Enterprise Protection

Although large corporations pay more attention to their security, they are still regularly targeted by hackers and their attempts are often successful. What is the situation with small businesses? A report from Barracuda Networks shows that employees of small businesses receive 350% more emails from social engineering attacks than employees of large companies

With such sad statistics, small businesses care much less about data security. This is not the main priority in their operational activities, there are not enough specialists and there is a strong feeling among managers that their business is not of interest to cybercriminals. If customer data is not protected, it is only a matter of time before an incident occurs. At the same time, IBM estimates the average cost of a hack worldwide at $4.35 million. Is it still worth proving that enterprise protection is in the interests of business?

Here are measures that do not require large financial expenditures, but will reduce the risks of cyber incidents.

Data Security Best Practices for Your Enterprise

Access Control Is Vital

Most companies have some form of governance structure, but not all restrict access to data or manage privileges. If any employee in your organization has maximum authority, then if any account is hacked, you will receive maximum damage to the business. The main principle in access control is the issuance of the minimum necessary privileges.

Another important approach is to remove inactive and outdated accounts. You should not leave accounts like these that can accumulate and increase the attack surface of your business. It is better to create a new account than to keep the old one, they are often forgotten about and these accounts can be hacked as a result of an attack on a former employee.

Compliance with Regulatory Requirements

When working with these clients, the business must follow the laws of the countries where you are located. This could be GDPR for Europe and even smaller laws like state legislation. One of the requirements is to protect data from interception and leaks. It also usually gives certain recommendations on security measures. When working with confidential data, encryption, access only to authorized employees and restrictions on the dissemination of information are required. If you work with international users, then you must consider both your local laws and the laws of the country where the client is located.

By the way, if you didn’t know, working with foreign users is not that difficult. You can unblock websites from almost any region using a VPN. If you need to access blocked website tutorials, you can use the VeePN website. This way, you can analyze your niche more deeply, navigate regional websites freely, and work safely with users from other countries.

Data Encryption

Encryption means that all data will not be stored in a publicly accessible version but in encrypted form. Even if this data falls into the wrong hands, it will be impossible to read it just like that. Breaking encryption is possible, but it requires a lot of effort and time. If we are talking about a more advanced type of encryption, then breaking it can take a year or even a decade. It is recommended to maintain the state both during the storage and transmission of data. End-to-end encryption in your file transfer tools is a very useful feature. Encryption is your last line of defence. Even if all else fails and hackers do get into the system, you can avoid exposing user data.

Create a Data Policy

Each employee must understand how to work with data, what requirements are present, etc. The policy for working with data should include classification of information, advice on gaining access, restrictions and rights to analyze information. This ensures that everyone in the company has the same understanding of how your customer and supplier data management processes work.

Data Anonymization

Data anonymization is a method of data protection in which basic information about it is replaced. This could be encryption or removal of identity. The data becomes anonymous, and suitable for analysis or testing. This security method is useful for software testing, application development, and data analysis. It is especially important to mask data if it is medical information, etc.

Physical Protection

Many leading businesses often overlook the significance of safeguarding their physical hardware. Start by ensuring that your workstations are secure when unattended to deter the physical theft of devices and protect the integral components such as hard drives that store your sensitive information.

Setting up a BIOS password can serve as a robust defense mechanism against hackers attempting to gain unauthorized entry into your operating systems. It is equally important to be vigilant about the security of portable devices, including USB drives, Bluetooth peripherals, smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

Conclusion

There are so many types of cyberattacks today that understanding and defending against them can be challenging. More employees mean more potential vulnerabilities and greater difficulty in communicating company values and data practices. However, both small and large companies must make efforts to stay afloat and maintain a positive reputation in the market