Cybersecurity 

Data privacy risk: how to protect your business from data breaches ?

Published on June 3, 2023 by Jean Donald VERZILUS

Data breaches are increasingly becoming a problem for businesses in today’s digital world. A single breach can result in millions of dollars of loss, plus considerable damage to your company’s reputation. The best way to deal with data breaches is to keep them from happening at all. Here are some preventive measures you can take.

1. Conduct a cybersecurity risk assessment
Before you implement any strategies to counter data breaches, you should first know how vulnerable you are to these attacks. This will give you a realistic starting point in creating a suitable defense strategy.

2. Train your employees
Many cases of data breaches stem from the lack of awareness of unsuspecting employees. You might be confident that your employees already know how to create secure passwords, or are sensible enough not to open suspicious emails. Even so, constant reminders and regular cybersecurity training are a necessity.

3. Protect your cloud
Most businesses are now using the cloud for the storage of files, servers, and all sorts of data. This is really helpful for scalability, cost-effectiveness, and more. But the cloud is also one of the biggest targets of cybercriminals. Make sure to use cloud data storage that is guaranteed to be private and protected, preferably through a cloud access security broker or CASB.

4. Have a reliable backup and recovery plan
Some data breaches will not just access or steal your information, they might even erase all your information from your server. This could mean the complete collapse of your business unless you have a secure data backup elsewhere. Make sure to use a secure storage location for your backup and also to backup all your crucial data regularly.

Data breach prevention might cost a bit of money but dealing with its consequences is much more expensive. Make sure you have sufficient security measures in place so you can avoid data breach incidents as much as possible.