How to Ensure Data Security in Organizations?

The cybersecurity world is progressing at high speed. At the same time, innovation in technologies is becoming increasingly better to combat cyber-criminals and hackers to exploit data security loopholes.

Both Artificial intelligence and machine learning are now offering high applications and tools for organizations as well as for the society to get benefit from it. But, some bad actors can also benefit from AI and machine learning and use these techniques to attack any business.

To fight against the autonomous artificial hackers, along with human teams, is almost impossible. For this reason, you might need to expand your security team with AI. By doing so, we'll witness machine to machine fights operating with agility and unbelievable speeds. However, if you are without any security team, then it will be quite an easy fight for autonomous hackers.

To further exploit the situation, your customers might demand a seamless experience across various channels. All of their interactions with your organization result in the creation of data. The clients will then require zero friction in their interactions with your business, although it is suitable for your customers but not for your organization. It is because each entry point in your organization's network, either it is a connected device or your app, will pose a potential hazard. When client touch points scale exponentially so, this might cause severe problems for the future of the organization.

The most important question is, how you can protect your organization's future? What measures should your company take to ensure that customer's data is secured?  And how you can prevent hackers from launching attacks? Well! There are five ways to ensure data security for ensuring the future of organizations. Read the remaining article and get to know more about it.

1. Take Security Analysis Seriously:

Protecting organizations from hackers is difficult, especially when they are machines. Thus, you should turn to extreme automation when it comes to data security- this is the time when security analytics comes into play.

Security analytics helps in understanding what is going on within the company. It also handles complex data landscape, especially for organizations that have large data centers, several employees that use their own devices, and valuable customers and employees that use vulnerable connected

devices. With security analytics, you can quickly gain not only data but also analytics needed to protect your IT resources.

Secondly, security analytics can spot the red flags that lead to an attack or a breach. You can find devices or hardware that are communicating with some unauthorized networks or systems and lock them down before someone else use that device to know your infrastructure. Moreover, you will have the potential of interfering with the zero-day attacks before they cripple the organization or result in a costly data breach.

Machine learning also plays a central role in automating. It prevents the IT security staff from becoming overwhelmed by the sherd pieces of information that they need to look at. When organizations defend attacks related to the connected devices and found more markers for possible vulnerabilities, then security analysis efficiently handles autonomously lower priority issues. The IT security analysts team can then focus on sophisticated exploits, along with other concerns that require a hands-on approach. In this way, the security analysis is becoming a necessity for tomorrow's organization.

2. Hire a Chief Security Officer (CSO):

Until and unless the board members do not discuss data security regularly, the organization may not take it serious enough. Every organization must consider hiring a C-level executive to deal with data security matters. The Chief Security Officer is not responsible for security analysis but for anything related to data. The CSO should be given an essential role within the board and must look for ways to combat persistent threats and reducing exposure to the company's IT systems to cyber-attacks.

The CSO should work to create a secure environment that is capable of dealing with large quantities of data. Security analytics comprises of terabytes or petabytes of data due to log information from monitoring network, database information, and all other system data that needs to be analyzed in real-time to know exactly what is going on.

Within a security analytics environment, organizations would be able to combine security intelligence with business transactional data as well as unstructured company data like emails to obtain a complete picture of what is happening. It will allow you to find all unique patterns and anomalies that actually might be, for instance, a slow-moving attack that, in the end, can do much harm.

The CSO is on the rise as almost 2/3 of large enterprises have hired a CSO. CSO plays a crucial role in the future of any organization. The job description primarily focuses on the detection, prevention, and response of data breaches, which requires the involvement of all departments.

3. Regular Backup and Update:

To enhance data security, it is also essential to have proper security checks and data backups. For any unexpected attack or data breach, the organization must back up their data. Keep a practice of automatic or manual data backup either on a weekly or regular basis.

Moreover, the data should be protected through useful antivirus tools and updated software. It is vital for everyone within the enterprise to possess complete knowledge on how to protect their computers because, at times, hackers invade your system and compromise your data; therefore, it is necessary to know how to protect the system. However, to achieve this milestone, you must possess a progressive IT department. Ensure that you're hiring someone who possesses the right skills and whom you can trust to do the job correctly.

4. Recognize Sensitive Data:

The companies need to be aware of where their most important data and sensitive business information lies. It will make sure that you have the right and authentic information and have allocated the right resources to protect the most crucial and sensitive assets.

The sensitive business data only comprises of around 5-10% of your total business data. A data compromise involving any confidential or personal data can result in an immense loss of reputation and revenue for a company.

5. Change your Perspective:

For many organizations, data security is not a top priority. There are several examples of organizations that have not taken data security seriously. In all such firms, passwords and sensitive files are stored and sent unencrypted, data is stored on public servers, and AWS servers are misconfigured. Because of this careless attitude, it is reported that during the first six months of 2019, over 4 billion data records having sensitive information were exposed.

Organizations must change their mindset. It is the time when they have to see data security as their utmost priority. Remember, one hack can ruin your organization; thus, take care of data security by all possible means.

It is not just the top management who need to understand the importance of data security, but every employee should know its worth. Company culture should incorporate the notion of data security.

The culture should include securely verifying the digital identity of all customers and staff members while they are interacting with your organization. The data breach of Marriott or Capital One shows that data security needs to move from the IT department to all other departments and even the boardroom. Changing perspectives involves educating your staff on the importance and need for data security.

Final Thoughts:

To run a successful business is a challenging task, but sustaining yourself is much more complicated. In today's world where cybersecurity risks are increasing day by day, it has become vital to be equipped with the security tools and privacy enhancements that are needed to safeguard the most valuable asset, i.e., your data. Hopefully, the points mentioned above will help in securing your data and protecting your organization from breaches.

Author

Rebecca James: Enthusiastic Cybersecurity Journalist, A creative team leader, editor of privacycrypts.com.

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