Some Very Helpful Tips to Protect Sensitive Data

Every year, numerous businesses and organizations become victims of one or more cyberattacks, which end up compromising sensitive data. These data breaches don’t just put the customer information at risk, but employee information is at risk as well. Apart from that, there is plenty of other confidential data that a business wants to keep under wraps. Cyber criminals usually take advantages of loopholes or weaknesses in a security system to gain access. Therefore, businesses need to be vigilant in order to ensure they don’t suffer from any breaches. There is considerable cost associated with a data breach and so every business wants to prevent it from happening.

Moreover, penalties and fines may also be imposed on a business if it doesn’t comply with standard security requirements. Thus, it best to take precautions in order to avoid any disastrous consequences. Here are some of the top tips that every business can use to protect sensitive data:

Restrict access to sensitive information

First and foremost, you need to restrict access if you want to protect sensitive data. Make sure that all confidential information should only be accessible to those staff members who require it for performing their jobs. Giving too many people access to this information will increase the risk of it being compromised.

Avoid using the same logins for all employees

Using the same logins for all employees is also a risk because if one employee’s login details are stolen, all employees’ details are compromised. In order to protect sensitive data, you should create unique logins for individual job positions or employees.

Audit your logins regularly

Even with unique logins, it is still vital for a business to audit them regularly to protect sensitive data. This is due to the fact that employees may leave the company or change positions every now and then and their logins should be removed or updated, as required.

Don’t issue business-wide administrative rights

It is a mistake to give administrative rights to every single employee that joins your team. The security privileges given to employees should be according to the position they hold. It is best to give admin rights only to designated IT employees or your IT services provider.

Use strong passwords to protect databases

The first step to protect sensitive data is to ensure that all records of employee information, customer accounts and other confidential data is password protected. Next, avoid using weak or common passwords because these can be easily guessed by hackers and other cyber criminals. Always ensure strong and complex passwords are used for protecting databases and they shouldn’t be predictable at all. This will make it difficult for attackers to get into your databases and compromise information.

All inactive workstations should also be password protected

Sometimes employees leave their workstations for one reason or another. A password-locked screen saver should be used, which should activate automatically after a set duration of inactivity. In this way, a business can protect sensitive data because unauthorized access can be prevented.

Update your security software

In today’s day and age, everyone is using security software to protect themselves from cyberattacks and other security threats online. However, it is not enough to just install security software to protect sensitive data; it is also necessary to keep it updated. This is because new malware surfaces on a regular basis and it can spread at an alarming rate. Updating your software can enable you to defend yourself against the latest threats and vulnerabilities.

Education is key

Every business needs to come up with an engaging way to train its employees about how to protect sensitive data. The staff needs to understand the value of this data and should be aware of best practices and policies that can come in handy. The employees also play an important role in safeguarding sensitive data because even human error can be the reason for data breaches.

Avoid public Wi-Fi

These days, it has become the norm for businesses to have employees who work remotely or travel. These employees should also be told to avoid using public Wi-Fi networks in airports, hotels, coffee shops or other places. If they do have to access this network, it is best for them to use a VPN. Get your IT service provider to set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for them to protect sensitive data.

Have an emergency response plan

Sometimes, despite all the measures and precautions that you take, your business may still become a victim of a data breach. What will you do if it does? No matter how many strategies you implement, you are still vulnerable because there might be a new threat out there. Hence, you should always have an emergency response plan in place, which can be used for minimizing the damage. Malware, ransomware, hackers and other cyber threats can infiltrate your system at any time and you need to teach your staff what to do in case it does. Bear in mind that swift reaction can make a lot of difference to corporate reputation and legal ramifications.

Get a security audit

Lastly, a business should make security audits routine. What does this mean? It refers to procedures performed for testing and checking the security measures, software and system to judge exactly how effective they are. Through a security audit, you will know if you can protect sensitive data or if it is at a huge risk. It is a way of eliminating any loopholes that may be exploited. It can also be performed after breaches to determine how they happened because they need to be prevented in the future at all costs.

These are some of the best tips that every business needs to know if they are committed to protect sensitive data. Not only do they help them in maintaining the trust of their customers, they also save the business from legal problems, fines and penalties that they may have to pay because of a data breach.