Cyber attacks and data breaches can cause major disruptions to business operations, both internally and externally. They can result in lost revenue due to unhappy clients, legal action by regulators and reputational damage. It’s important to keep in mind that many of these risks can be prevented with the proper security measures.
In order to ensure the safety of its data, a company must adhere to certain laws and regulations. They could be specific to a particular location, such as GDPR in the EU or industry-specific such as HIPAA in the US however, they must be in place regardless of the size and scope of the company’s operations.
These regulations and rules include encryption of sensitive data sent over public networks. They also ensure the privacy of employees through background checks or checking references of job applicants. And they only collect data that is essential to business processes. These regulations and rules typically require encryption on devices like laptops or portable storage devices. They may even include rules that prohibit the use of any software that isn’t approved by their company as this increases the risk of malware and data breaches.
Moreover, companies must understand the whole lifecycle of data and how it moves through the network. This can be done by using data maps that can provide a timeline of how data came to the organization, where it currently lives and who has access to it. Data should be only collected for operational purposes, and should not be kept longer than is necessary. This decreases the chance of data breaches. Zero Trust architecture is a method of dealing with cybersecurity that could be beneficial for businesses, since it enforces the rule of never trusting any device or user until they have been verified.