When it comes to securing sensitive information, it’s vital to distinguish between data protection, data security and data privacy. Although they may sound the same, each serves different purposes in your organization’s overall strategy for protecting data. Data protection best practices help protect your company’s data from loss, corruption, and loss by establishing procedures and controls that limit access, monitor activities, and detect and respond to threats. Data security concerns the integrity of data as well as safeguarding vital information against illegitimate changes, while privacy defines what information can be viewed by third parties and who has access to it.
To organize your data protection properly, begin by performing an audit of your company infrastructure to determine the type of data and where it originates from. This will help you map your systems and determine the policies you need to implement, including the risk assessment, which will aid in determining the best strategy for your efforts based upon the highest dangers to your data.
Once you have mapped your data, it is time to develop a classification system. This system helps establish access controls for use and modification and helps you meet compliance. It’s important to use an easy and consistent classification scheme, no matter whether you are using a role-based or access-oriented schema. This will decrease the chances of human error, which can cause data to not be secured.
Additionally, you’ll need establish a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plan that safeguards your data in the event of a cyber attack. This includes encrypting your data during its rest and in transit so that malicious actors can’t read your information. Also, it is essential to update your disaster recovery and backup plan to ensure that your business can continue to operate in the event of a cyberattack, or data loss.