Data security is a field that encompasses a variety of business practices and technologies. The goal is to guard personal information of employees and customers against data breaches, cyberattacks or other unauthorized exposure risk. This includes everything from robust policy frameworks to thorough data sanitization practices and cybersecurity software.
Secure data encryption is the best way to protect yourself from hackers. This can prevent access to data that is not authorized by requiring the appropriate key to decode it. It’s an essential element of most security strategies, and is required by many compliance standards.
Redundancy and backups are crucial to ensure security of data. A backup that is physically stored in a different location can reduce the risk of losing data in the event of a natural disaster or outage and redundant data can be used to restore compromised information.
It’s also crucial to limit the use and collection of data practices, which is known as “data minimization.” The more data you have, the greater opportunities hackers have to target you for attacks, therefore it’s essential to adhere to the best practices in authenticating the identity of users, data sanitization, and other security measures.
It is essential to know where your personal information is at all the time. This is particularly critical in industries that are regulated, such as healthcare and credit card processing where compliance with government regulations like HIPAA and GDPR is an absolute must. Data management tools that let you view all your data in one place and provide a robust auditing capability are crucial.