Strategies to Implement Effective Security for Corporate Data

By CIOReview | Friday, March 8, 2019

Data is the lifeline of businesses today as the success of business strategies depend majorly on the efficient use of data. Acknowledging the significance of data, many data privacy regulations have been enacted like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Enterprise data consists of customer information that can contain financial information and other personal details. Any breach to the data can inflict irreparable damage to the customer as well as to the organization’s financial standing and brand reputation. Many companies are not sufficiently motivated to secure sensitive information as the repercussions are not severe enough to encourage organizations to prioritize data protection adequately. Data compliance regulations can provide a baseline level of visibility and control over sensitive data, ensuring data privacy to a large extent. A few steps that can ensure a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity and regulatory compliance:

Observation of currently regulated industries: many industries like healthcare and finance have strong data protection programs, which help them to achieve regulatory compliance. Companies operating in these industries use contextual access control and data loss prevention tools to control access to data. However, according to a report by Bitglass, 103 financial services breaches were recorded in the year 2018. Unregulated companies should learn from the successes and failures of regulated industries before implementing data protection strategies. In addition to the compliance regulation, companies should also opt for comprehensive policies according to their risk tolerance and security needs.

Data protection beyond the firewall: Traditional information security teams used to create a secure parameter to protect their data against any threats. These security services managed to keep threat out with various layers of security, enabling companies to have full control over their data. However, the proliferation of cloud services applications and bring your own device (BYOD) has resulted in reduced data control for enterprises. Companies should shift their security strategies from network-centric to data-centric approach to provide ample security for the corporate data.