Data Protection Strategies To Keep Your Business (And Your Customers) Safe

Knowing that you need to protect the information in your possession, and knowing where to begin are two different matters. But putting together a data protection strategy does not need to be a complicated endeavour. Let’s look at 10 key steps that you can take to protect your data. Including these in your strategy will ensure that your data is protected against most threats, and that there are measures in place should your data ever become compromised.

1. Manage Your Data’s Lifecycle

Having a deep understanding of how data in your business is created, where it’s stored, when and how it’s archived, and when it gets deleted is an important first step for any business wanting to form a data security strategy. The better this is understood, the more prepared you and your teams can be for securing your information.

2. Minimise And Manage Risk

Risk is inevitable. It’s part of doing business. But the way that you manage risk is what sets you up for success. There are various ways of reducing and mitigating the risk to your business, from preparing for the worst case scenario, to training your team on how to react to threats, to transferring risk to external IT providers who are better equipped and experienced in dealing with data threats. But one of the first steps in mitigating risk is understanding the threats to your data, and creating a strategy around dealing with those threats that best suit your business needs.

3. Data Backup & Recovery 

One excellent risk mitigation strategy, and one that is essential for continuous data protection, is to regularly backup your data and to have a recovery plan in place for if disaster strikes. This is a simple method of protecting your data against, for example, ransomware attacks. Ransomware often involves cyber criminals corrupting your data or removing your access from it with the intention of bringing your operations to a standstill until a ransom amount is paid. When you have a backup and recovery system in place, the threat that these attackers pose is substantially reduced, as you can restore your data without needing to give into their demands.

4. Manage Access To Your Data

Every person who has access to the information that your company holds increases the risk to your data. Managing access to ensure that the right people have access to the information that they need to work efficiently, but that this access is limited to only the data they need greatly reduces this risk. If, for example, an attacker were to gain access to one employee’s login credentials, their access would then be limited, rather than all encompassing.

5. Ensuring Confidentiality, Integrity & Availability

On top of managing who has access to your data, and making sure that the right information is available to the right people when they need it, one of the biggest data threats that you need to consider is not just external attacks. Internal IT threats can also compromise your data, whether intentionally or through human error. This is why it’s important for your teams to understand the role that they play in maintaining the privacy of personal data. Train your teams to ensure that communications are encrypted wherever possible to maximise confidentiality, and to take care when managing sensitive information to ensure its integrity.

6. Effective Data Storage

There are plenty of options out there for data storage, and part of your data privacy strategy should be making sure that the right data is stored in the right way, and is accessible to the right people. On-premises storage may be the most secure in terms of reducing the number of people who have access to it, but can also be more difficult to secure in terms of management, maintenance, updating and upgrading. It would also only be a useful storage system when at least some of your team are based in the office. After all, data is only useful if it is accessible for the people who need it. If you are storing data that doesn’t need to be accessed at all, for any reason whatsoever, then you should reconsider step one and better manage your data’s lifecycle to delete information that is no longer necessary.

7. Keep Your Data Compliant

A big factor to consider when managing your data storage is ensuring that it is stored in compliance with local regulations. If you are doing business with companies within the EU, your data needs to follow the guidelines set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), even if your company itself is not based in Europe. The same applies if you are working with South African clients – your data will need to be stored in regulation with the Protection Of Personal Information (POPI) Act. Knowing which guidelines apply to your data storage, and making sure that the storage itself is in compliance, and that your data is managed according to these laws, will help you to avoid penalties.

8. Maximise Data Security

While every step above goes a long way towards ensuring that your data protection strategy will be effective, there are additional security measures that you can put in place. On top of training your teams in best practices and how to recognise and avoid data threats through cyber hygiene practices, you can also put alerts in place. These will ensure that if a threat is detected, your IT team will be aware of it as soon as possible, and have the best possible chance of mitigating the threat before it results in a data leak or a data breach.

9. Put Procedures in Place 

By making sure that your data protection strategy is well documented through regulated procedures, you can ensure that it is as effective as possible. It’s one thing to want to protect the information that your company holds, but without proper procedures, every step that you take will be off-the-cuff, and can result in contradictory measures being taken without your even realising it, actually putting your data at further risk. By documenting your processes and procedures, you’ll make it easy to follow your data protection strategy for years to come.

10. Continually Monitor & Review Your Strategy

Ensuring that your data protection strategy is effective is about more 1than just putting measures in place and forgetting about them. You need to regularly and consistently monitor your strategy and review your security measures, ensuring that the latest best practices are being followed, and that your teams are well trained to handle any potential data threats.