Knowing how to protect your organisation against cyber threats is increasingly important in today’s digital age. Implementing best practice policies is often a sure-fire way to reduce risk and avoid financial and reputational damage in the future. We have compiled our top data protection tips to help you secure your personal data, passwords, and identity online:
Your employees need regular training on cyber security as a whole. By making them aware of the kind of security threats, how they present themselves, and what procedures to take in case of a security breach, you equip them with the necessary data protection tips to protect themselves and the company from cybercriminals.
Do not share or provide personal or private information without a good reason. Sensitive information such as PINS, passwords, and credit cards should always be kept confidential and only provided when it is essential.
Apart from legal exposure, keeping personal information longer than required may lead to that data getting compromised. Therefore, your business should have a data retention policy with clear stipulations on how long each data type should be kept and how that should be disposed of safely.
Passwords are an essential aspect of data protection; they form the first line of protection for user accounts. Easily guessable or deduced passwords can lead to the compromise of an entire data ecosystem. A proper password management policy clearly stipulates how to safely create, store and use passwords. It also outlines the risks involved in poor management of passwords.
It is not just digital; physical data breaches are also common. A physical data breach involves intruders to your offices seeking to access or transfer your sensitive information. As a result, businesses should employ a visitor management system. The system helps to track and monitor all visitors’ movements coming in and out of your offices.
Shadow IT, one of the primary concerns in cybersecurity, is facilitated by using employees’ personally owned devices at the workplace. A BOYD policy addresses how employee-owned personal devices should be used and managed. A proper policy would prohibit employees from accessing very sensitive data with their own devices.
Passwords are the single biggest cyber threat in 2021. Cyber News reports that 3.2 million pairs of emails and passwords were recently leaked online. That is why there is a need for strong encryption, which includes a combination of alphanumeric and special characters. The larger the key, the better.
Unfettered and unlimited access is a great concern in data protection. Therefore, there is a need to limit the number of users, programs, and processes accessing certain information. Employing user privileges to limit which users have access to what data is an excellent way of reducing security incidences.
Avoidance of free Wi-Fi is another great point in data protection tips. While free Wi-Fi is a good marketing strategy, it is also a security concern. It creates a new attack surface that cybercriminals can use to launch attacks and access personal information.
If you have found our data protection tips valuable and you would like to discuss these further with one of our friendly experts, please contact us today. Alternatively, view our latest feature in Informi to understand how you can help protect your organisation from cyber crime.
