The Importance of Data Security
Data security is one of the most important aspects in business and is something that needs to be implemented correctly within your organisation.
Cyber-attacks against businesses are common in every industry and country. These threats often come in the form of malware, ransomware, phishing and denial of service attacks.
While many threats can be avoided with simple precautions, some can be a major challenge to overcome. Failure to recognise the importance of security could potentially lead to lasting damage for a brand.
This blog post goes into detail as to why data security is paramount, the impact a data breach could have on your organisation and the best methods of avoiding one.
What is Data Security?
Data security refers to the process of protecting data from unauthorised access and data corruption throughout its lifecycle. This is typically done through methods of encryption, tokenisation and internal practices to minimise breaches across the organisation.
Organisations throughout the world have invested heavily in security defence systems to protect not only internal business data, but also sensitive customer data.
Any organisation that is lacking in the appropriate data security measures is leaving itself open to a potential data breach.
The Impact of a Data Breach
A data breach can often have detrimental effects on your organisation in more ways than one:
1. Costs
Fines are very common for organisational data breaches. Recent GDPR data breaches have resulted in average fines ranging between €340,000 to €21,000,000 depending on the severity of the breaches.
Not only are these fine costly for organisations. The disruption to the employee workflow and the restoration of your company data and network will continuously drive up expenditure.
2. Reputational Damage
Brand reputation is of the upmost importance for many organisations. Organisations pay millions in fines, but the negatively impacted brand reputation is what causes the long-term major issues.
It can take years for many brands to overcome the challenge of being associated with poor data security.
3. Job Losses
Employees are often held responsible for their actions within an organisation in the event of a data security breach. Investigations into security breaches can result in terminated employment contracts.
Avoiding a Data Breach
1. Regular Software Updates
To ensure the chances of exploits are minimised, the software used within the organisation must be updated and patched on a regular basis.
As software gets older and becomes more prevalent it becomes more susceptible to bugs and weak areas of security. Updates however patch these vulnerable spots making it more difficult for hackers to access sensitive data.
Investment in the right software and security technology will ultimately greatly reduce your organisation’s level of vulnerability.
2. Staff Training
Employees have an important role in minimising a data breach. Internal data breach and data security awareness needs raised within organisations.
Efficient data security training is critical to ensure the employees are informed about its importance, know how to detect threats as well as how to report these threats.
Similarly, it’s also important to educate employees on the potential impact a data breach could have not only the organisation, but the employees themselves.
Security policies must to be updated regularly to ensure employees understand exactly what they can be held accountable for in the event of something going wrong.
3. Risk Assessment
Reviews of the current practices need to be conducted regularly. Similarly, assessments of any changes or new risks to data protection should be considered by management.
These reviews act as a checklist for prioritising the most vulnerable aspects of your systems.
Data’s expanding importance means security needs to be considered a critical aspect for organisations.
Data breaches (both purposely and accidentally) are a constant threat to businesses around the world. Because of this effective data security processes and policies are of the upmost importance.
Do you wish to find out more about the services we offer to improve your data strategy and security? Be sure to contact us today on +353 1 8041298!
