Data Security is a Real Aspect of Your Business

Data Security is a Real Aspect of Your Business

Data Is The New Oil” by Clive Humby

Companies are often left vulnerable to data breaches initiated by insider threats, identity theft, hackers, or government interference. This sort of attack can completely undermine corporate security measures and jeopardize any investment made. According to a recent report, the average price for an event that affects half of all organizations worldwide costs $81 million in lost revenue, lost productivity, and severance costs.

The report concludes: “In a world in which cybercrime is becoming a chronic epidemic, the individuals, organizations, and governments that take the proper steps to protect their data are in a stronger position to restore systems and recover revenues and productivity. Companies cannot often implement best practices in information security, such as internal threat detection, as well as formal documentation for critical business processes. Consequently, internal threats and breaches frequently spiral out of control and ultimately compromise all involved,” the report reads. “While IT security may be an enterprise issue, we find it particularly important for consumers to understand that information theft or misuse is a business issue.”

There is a genuine risk that when a company loses control of internal systems, the most significant concerns are that insider attacks could compromise sensitive data, potentially disabling electronic controls for a while. Data leakage, or data theft, is widely suspected to be the culprit behind numerous sizeable corporate data breaches. Confidentiality can be compromised in an instant and with huge costs to the organization. If someone can get into a company’s network, they can transfer hundreds or thousands of confidential files to anyone who would pay for such information. You can be frozen out of your company if all of your access credentials have been changed. For some companies, the work of securing employee data – payment information, credit card information, employee wholesale secrets, website login details, users’ private data, and other sensitive data – is becoming more and more expensive. 

According to a Microsoft blog post, companies are left vulnerable to data breaches initiated by insider threats. In this particular case, a handful of employees had access to a trove of files from the ‘Xbox Live’ user account database, information that stored personal information such as a nickname, Gamertag, skin colour, size, avatar and, presumably, titles played. According to the Microsoft blog, by exploiting a vulnerability in ‘TLS’, malicious hackers could get around an organization’s overall data security control and access Xbox Live user data. This information is extremely sensitive, and the breach of it, with all of its potential consequences, can be devastating for many individuals.

Improving Security Protocols

Improving Security Protocols

Improving security protocols, enhancing responses to insider threats, and considering security mitigations for high-value targets can all improve business safety. High-value targets are those companies and individuals of worth who are most likely to discover and exploit an insider attack. Improving security protocols for employees of high-value targets requires developing risk management tools. 

Businesses can prevent insider threats and mitigate the damage caused by such attacks. They can determine whether their employees may have become an insider threat by assessing whether the business or its products are being used for insider threats; their use for cyber threats; and whether insider threats may have been used to compromise their employees’ identity. If organizations become aware that insiders have already compromised their company, they may prevent future insider threats by implementing policies to manage insider threats effectively. They can do this by improving their internal controls to detect and respond to insider threats.

Corporate insiders are a highly motivated group of people who possess valuable information regarding the critical business processes that are to be disrupted. Insider threats are a menace of great magnitude that can cause significant financial loss and economic disruption.

How To Prevent Insider Threats

How To Prevent Insider Threats

Businesses can prevent insider threats and mitigate the damage caused by such attacks by implementing basic data and document security safeguards. These include basic permission policies and processes and controls that enable the broadest possible access to documents and information. They also include those based on correct administrative authority, such as valid corporate passwords, superuser access to and administrative control over personal computers, access to authorized works, wireless devices, backup arrangements and the ability to restrict access to confidential documents and information and work activities.

Offices should ensure that unauthorized users are not given preferential treatment over employees who have access to information and should assess the feasibility of asking employees to sign a code of conduct. Businesses should implement oversight policies for their information technology employees and should, where appropriate, monitor employees’ use of their company-issued mobile devices. Preventing unauthorized users from the use of confidential and sensitive documents and other digital assets can help businesses protect themselves from cyber threats.

Whether you’re a supplier, a user, a vendor, or a business associate of a vendor, IT security is a continuous task that requires steadfast acuity. Since everyone is connected to the Internet, it’s a good idea to update your security team with regular insight into the digital world. Identify where breaches are occurring, develop security measures to minimize, and address vulnerabilities that may exist.

When you implement digital rights management, you take a proactive approach to data security and the information on your servers, and the cloud is safeguarded using industry-leading technology. Digital Rights Management will ensure that only the people authorized are able to access your confidential and sensitive documents and data, which is protected from unauthorized users by the use of encryption. This ensures that it is harder for anyone to access your encrypted data without the keys to decrypt it. DRM also controls what authorized users can do with documents they are entitled to use (such as whether they can copy and paste content, print it, etc.). Many companies store confidential and sensitive information in PDF files, so using PDF DRM, data recovery tools by Remo you can make sure your data’s safe and secure regardless of where it is located.

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