Keeping a business safe involves many things. First, access control on all entrances is a must. Employees use their badge or a key fob to enter the building, and there are policies in place forbidding people from entering without swiping. Vendors and guests must sign in with reception and be escorted by an employee. In highly sensitive areas, high definition digital cameras capture and record the movements of people.
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Outside storage containers are padlocked, the keys tightly controlled, and security checks the locks periodically throughout the day, logging each inspection. Before a new hire starts his or her first day at work, a rigorous background and reference check is completed. In retail, it is not uncommon for a manager to visually inspect an employee’s backpack before they leave to ensure no products were stolen.
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While we think of physical and loss prevention security all the time, are we putting as much thought into keeping our data secure? If we are honest with ourselves, data security probably doesn’t get as much focus as other areas of physical security, loss prevention, or employee safety.
What is Data Security?
Forcepoint defines data security as “a set of standards and technologies that protect data from intentional or accidental destruction, modification or disclosure. Data security can be applied using a range of techniques and technologies, including administrative controls, physical security, logical controls, organizational standards, and other safeguarding techniques that limit access to unauthorized or malicious users or processes.”
All businesses today deal with data. Giant hospital networks deal with massive volumes of personal, healthcare, and payment data. Small and medium business (SMB) manage customer information, vendor, and employee records. And one-person businesses store contacts on a mobile device. Data is at play across all organizations.
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The purpose of data security then, is to protect the data that an organization collects, stores, creates, receives, or transmits. In many industries, compliance is also a major consideration. Irrespective of the device, technology, or process used to manage, store, or collect the data, it must be protected.
Why is Data Security Important?
A data breach is costly and can result in many tangible and intangible costs that can act as a drag on your business for years:
- Loss of Sales: loss of immediate sales as news of a breach spreads
- Damaged Brand and Reputation: ongoing and longer-term effects of customer lack of trust in the brand that hurts the business over a longer-term
- Compensation Costs: the expense of trying to coax customers back with generous discounts or compensate them for losses
- Legal Action: safe to say you can expect to be sued or in the case of significant breaches, class action suits
- Fines: government levied fines for a breach
- Government Audits: FTC or other governing body reviews your policies and procedures
- Remediation Costs: costs to determine the root cause of a breach, identify and repair the gaps in your security posture and infrastructure, as well as any associated hiring or firing
IBM estimates that the average data breach costs $3.9 million, and the average size of a data breach affects 25,575 records. A simple math calculation suggests that the exposure is around $152 per record. Larger businesses have far more exposure, for example, take the massive 2017 Equifax breach that took nearly two years to settle with the FTC at the cost of $575 million, up to $700 million. Not to mention the impact and inconvenience to approximately 147 million people whose data was compromised.
How To Defend Against Data Breaches
Organizations must find and deploy ransomware protection software to prevent current and future ransomware variants. Ransomware protection software can help stop vectors like Bad Rabbit, Petya/NotPetya, and WannaCry in their tracks.
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There are several commonsense steps to avoid data breaches and mitigate the damage and remediation efforts involved in ransomware attacks:
- Train your organization on existing and emerging threats
- Use of documented cybersecurity policies and escalation procedures
- Backup system images and data
- Store backup system images and data in a separate location
- Use of “Strong” passwords, changed frequently
- Deployment of a firewall
- Installation of anti-malware applications
- Multi-factor authentication
Beyond this, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is vital to take a realistic look at computer endpoints, appliances, networking infrastructure, and the core data center to ensure that it is hardened against attacks.
