We are in a data-driven world. Thanks to the internet revolution and the subsequent digital transformation trend that made this possible!

Data has become very crucial in an organizational journey, from initiating a process to executing the same through informed decision-making.

At the next level, data is playing a key part in the success of advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, driving them in market penetration.

So, every eye is on data today. It is worth trillions of dollars for some organizations and even beyond priceable for some.

What makes it so significant is its ability and presence in the current-day operations.

While data utilization and demand are at this level, the challenge of data protection or data security continues to be a nightmare for most organizations.

This is where the true question arises. How do you protect data?

Here are ‘6 factors that every organization should consider in their efforts towards data protection’:

1) The Data You Possess!

First and foremost, there should be a clear idea about the different types of data you have in your organization. The data that you handle, create, copy, paste, store and more for your daily operations. This could often involve Personally Identifiable Information (PII), financial data, credentials, user information and more.

It’s of high significance to keep a close monitor on what your data contains and its compliance with your data regulations before it moves across channels. Knowing this helps assess possible risk factors and risks, and plan your things accordingly.

2) The Place Where Data Resides

You can’t protect your data if you don’t know where it resides. It could be in databases, archives and applications or residing in test, development, backup, recovery and interlinked or disconnected systems as duplicated copies.

Further, it could be in hidden emails, text, word or excel files. Remember! Any of these sources could be the hot spots for intruders. So, know where your data resides and find every possible way to protect it.

3) The Access Your Provide

This is another key where an intruder may target to steal your data. Giving access to too many within the organization or to users might land you in data troubles. Identify your exact user base and define the access rights.

Most companies report access control issues after having issued too many keys for access. This should be taken care and limited access should be given based on a ‘need-to-know’ basis.

Limited access, lesser will be the chances of data duplication, distribution and contamination, and the volume of loss in case of an unexpected threat.

4) Data Audits

This is another crucial to ensuring data protection. Perform regular data audits to know who access your data and the reason. This helps you detect anomalies and prevent unauthorized access. Moreover, in case of administrative access to sensitive data, track the activity of how the data is being used. It’s not about distrust on your staff, that’s all about verification to ensure possible threats.

5) Fully Secure Data

Weak locks put you at high risks. Given the awareness about the growing threats, it’s highly important to double-check if all ports, configuration settings, critical data and patches are secured their way. Leaving your systems unprotected from the first line of defense gives hackers a way out to penetrate further into your organizational data.

6) Hide Original Data Often

Need not use exactly the real data in every instance. You may try fake or duplicate data that resembles your actual data for testing applications and development activities.

Ensure to replace all instances of real social security, email ids, financial information and other data with some random data. This limits exposure to actual data and provides one line of defense for your sensitive data.

In Conclusion

It has to be clearly understood that data security is not just about implementing firewalls or installing anti-virus. It’s more of a discipline and your approach towards data handling at all levels including creation, discovery, storage location, monitoring and assigning access rights.

You never know where a threat comes from. All you need is data security and free from data threats. It’s time to keep a close watch at your data security stance!