Data is the new gold, and every company guards their data strongly. Since the proliferation of cloud-based services, businesses, individuals, and even governments have become more sensitive to data breaches and what they could entail. Some countries have even drafted stringent laws protecting the data of their citizens.
As for businesses, the onus is on them to do everything possible to protect their data. Companies that fail to put in data security solutions for this run the risk of being indicted and paying huge sums of money to compensate the victims of these breaches. But most importantly, they also stand to lose their integrity as a company. As a result, companies invest in data security.
In this article, we’ll be looking at ten ways businesses can improve their data security in 2023.
But first,
Table of Contents
What Is Data Security?
Data security refers to all measures used to protect data from unauthorised access and corruption. There are many data security solutions businesses use to maintain the integrity of their data.
Let’s discuss a few of them below:
8 Ways To Improve Data Security
Use Strong Passwords
Passwords aren’t as failsafe as they used to be. Now, any half-good hacker can hack a weak password. A weak password is generic and easy to guess, for example, 123456. For this reason, it’s crucial that businesses insist on strong passwords for their workers. Businesses should enforce the use of strong passwords for all employees on every device. These complex passwords should also be changed every 60 or 90 days to ensure their integrity. Employees should also be strongly encouraged to memorise their passwords.
Invest in Cyber Security
Cyber security is all activities or measures to protect computers, servers, networks, data, and electronic systems from attack. The practices in Cyber security are updated regularly as new threats are discovered. Therefore businesses that invest in Cyber security specialists and tools like Google Workspace security have a better chance of protecting their data from malicious attacks.
Adopt An Effective Information Disposal Mechanism
Businesses handle sensitive information all the time, and app that data is at risk of being stolen by malicious hackers. Businesses can improve their data security capacity by reducing how much data they have to manage and protect. When data is stale, it should be disposed of safely. An effective information disposal mechanism handles this automatically. It erases, modifies, and shreds redundant data to make it useless for any hackers.
Don’t Rule Out Insider Risks
One of the biggest mistakes organisations make is to guard their data against malicious attacks from outside threats alone. While hackers out there are a threat, there are also threats within the organisation. In some cases, hackers will use loopholes within the company to infiltrate the organisation’s data bank.
To prevent this, businesses should guard against both inside and outside threats. Train your employees to identify potential threats, and put in measures to plug all inner system vulnerabilities.
Regularly Backup Your Data
Next to having your data stolen, the worst thing that could happen to an organisation is losing its data. Some malware and attacks are aimed at wiping data from the system. Businesses without a backup will be at a major disadvantage if this happens. Organisations must always back up their data and store it in a remote, safe place unconnected to the central business account.
Run Security Tests
Short of an actual malicious attack, nothing else tests an organisation’s data security measures. In place of an actual attack, organisations should run a simulated attack. This can be a penetration test or a simple vulnerability assessment test to see. If your business can afford it, get a professional service to carry out a security audit and test for weakness in your security.
Update Your Programs Often
As mentioned earlier, hackers are constantly adapting to the newest data security measures. This is reason enough for organisations to always be on guard against data breaches. One way to do this is by updating your programs and software regularly. These updates usually come with updated data security, so when you update, you’ll be protected against any data vulnerabilities the older version might have had.
Encrypt Your Devices
Device encryption is another important method, especially if people in your organisation work with their mobile or personal devices. Encrypting the device adds another layer of protection for your data.
Conclusion
Data security is paramount for any organisation, and it’s an ongoing duty to implement steps that improve data security in your organisation.