Data security protects physical and digital information from unauthorized access and destruction. It is an essential requirement for every business, as it ensures the confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of personal data to authorized users. It also helps prevent the loss of critical information due to an attack on the internet or a data breach. A reliable data security program consists of a variety of tools that adhere to these six essential best practices:
The authentication and authorization process is essential to any data security strategy. When your data is at rest or in transport it is essential to ensure that only authorized users have access to your data using credentials, like encryption keys or passwords or other methods of authentication such as multi-factor identification (MFA) which requires the user has to provide more than one form of verification.
The company should be able of identifying its application data and know the moment when sensitive data is in a particular state, such as “at rest”, “in transit” or “in use”.
It isn’t easy for organizations to keep the records of sensitive data as the amount of data collected increases. This is the reason it’s essential to follow the principle of least privilege, which stipulates that users should be given only the data they require for their job. By reducing permissions to the minimum, you can boost your overall security posture and reduce storage and bandwidth costs. Lastly, your data usage policy should specify the way data is used and determine the consequences for any violation.