Data security is the procedure of saving corporate data and controlling data loss via unauthorized permits. It includes protecting your data from attacks that can encrypt or kill data, such as ransomware, and attacks that can revise or erode your data. Data security even secures data available to anyone in the organization who has access to it.
As companies gather more data on customers than ever, high-profile data breaches have become regular. Today, big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta (formerly Facebook) are grappling with mounting data privacy concerns. Regulations around data protection are also getting tighter with recurring cases of data breaches. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which applies to any EU citizen regardless of where they live, requires privacy by design and respect for user privacy. Cisco's 2021 Data Privacy Benchmark Study found that 79 per cent of organizations believe such regulations are having a positive effect.
According to the Tech Republic, Microsoft spends over $1 billion a year on data security and protection. Cybercriminals then modify and revamp their tactics to prevent the latest protection actions.
A patchwork of different state data protection laws and industry norms tries to defend clients and maintain businesses liable for the data they collect. But the majority of people are concerned about the safety of their data online. Cybercrime is a rapid-growing type of crime in this world and displays no signals of slowing down as it persists to be favorably lucrative for the perpetrators - cybercrime is approximately to cost the world an annual $10.5 trillion by 2025. And unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic has aggravated the amount of cybercrime that has ensued. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) noticed a large spike in reported frauds during 2020, peaking in May with 1,479 reports on a single day.
How Data Breaches Impact Businesses?
- From 2019 to 2020, the number of data breaches decreased from 1,473 to 1,0012.
- The largest data breach occurred in 2013. Yahoo’s data breach exposed the records of 3 billion user accounts3.
- In 2020, 524 organizations were breached in 17 different countries and 17 different industries, according to IBM4.
Precautions taken by Businesses and People for their own Data Security
- 24% of VPN users use them for business purposes only, while another 15% use them for both business and personal data security, according to our VPN consumer research.
- In the next six months, 22% of U.S adults said that they plan to buy a VPN service if a business and/or personal data security need arises.
- 74% of parents of children ages 10 to 18 in the U.S. survey their child’s or children’s online performance, as per our cyberbullying investigation.
Why is Data Security Important?
Data security is vital to public and private sector firms for several reasons. First, there’s the lawful and honorable obligation that companies have to secure their client and customer data from slipping into incorrect hands. Financial firms, for example, may be subject to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) which forces companies to take all reasonable measures to protect user data.
Then, there’s the reputational threat of a data breach or hack. If you don’t take data security in a serious manner, then your reputation will be ruined in the event of a publicized, high-profile breach or hack. Never express the financial and logistical impacts if a data breach happens. You’ll need to spend time and money to assess and repair the damage. It also determines which business processes failed and what needs to be improved.
The Ponemon Institute’s Cost of Data Breach Study discovered that on average, the harm caused by a data breach in the USA was $8 million. 25,575 user accounts were affected in the average data incident, which means that is above financial failures. Most incidents show to loss of client confidence and harm to reputation.
Different Data Security Technologies
Data security technology comes in multiple shapes and structures that secure data from increasing threats. Many of these threats are from external sources, but organizations should focus their efforts on safeguarding their data from the inside, too. Ways of securing data include:
- Data Encryption: Data encryption uses a code for every particular piece of data and will not give access to encrypted data without an official key provided.
- Data Masking: Masking distinct areas of data can cover it from revelation to outward negative sources and internal personnel who could potentially utilize the data. For instance, the first twelve digits of a credit card number may be masked inside a database.
- Data Erasure: Many data that are no longer active need to be erased from all systems defines Data Erasure. For example, if a client has asked for their name to be removed from a mailing list, the details should be deleted permanently.
- Data Resilience: By creating backup copies of data, organizations can recover data should it be erased or corrupted accidentally, or stolen during a data breach.
Main Elements of Data Security:
There are three core elements of data security that all organizations should adhere to Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. These ideas are also directed to the CIA Triad, working as a security model and framework for top-notch data security. Here’s what every core component means in terms of maintaining your sensitive data protected from unauthorized access and data exfiltration.
- Confidentiality: Ensures that data is accessed only by official users with the appropriate credentials.
- Integrity: Assure that all data reserved is dependable, precise, and not subject to unnecessary differences.
- Availability: Ensures that data is readily and safely available and available for continuous business requirements.
Future Roadmap of Data Security:
With homomorphic encryption, you can manipulate and analyze data without compromising security. Companies can save time and money by not having to transfer data between networks or worry about it being copied.
The use cases of homomorphic encryption can range from Spartan to the sophisticated- from spell checkers to an email and medical records analysis to things like photo filters or genomic research.
CSM Work on Data Security:
CSM has the tech capability in data security built for robust system that deal with massive public data to supports its clients. CSM has its own end-to-end encrypted Security Operating Centre (SOC) implemented for its in-house data management and security where it takes care of all the data of the company, its employees and its clients’. CSM is using Firewall for periphery security and antivirus to ensure that the data is completely secured. VPN technology is also used by CSM as it encrypts the internet traffic on unsecured networks to protect the online identity of every registered user.
