Data Security Considerations in Cyber Security

The Internet is an open forum, with millions of users availing a variety of services with a high level of trust. They often fail to see the poor level of security the internet has and the potential threats they may have to encounter.

With security becoming a huge concern in the digital world, companies are scrutinizing their data security to prevent solicited access from outsiders. let us learn about data security considerations:

What is Data Security?

Data Security is a process of protecting databases and sensitive information on the network from unauthorized access and corruption throughout its lifecycle.

The set of techniques and applications strengthens the physical arrangements and software checks of an organization. This helps in tightening the security parameters of the company and reduce the risk.

Data security consideration entails the security of data and system resources against unauthorized access, disclosure, or corruption. Data breaches may be intentional or unintentional but ultimately cause huge losses to the organization hence need to be taken seriously.

Top 5 Data Security Considerations

5 types of data security considerations are:

1. Backing up Data

The purpose of data backup is to create extra copies of important files in a separate storage location to act as a backup during any failure.

Various factors like human carelessness, malicious attack, or system faults trigger failure in an infrastructure. Physical storage or cloud storage stores the backed-up data.

Why should we back up data?

a. To prevent accidental modification or damage to data.

b. To safeguard valuable data from being stolen.

c. Protecting the company’s trade secrets and other business information from a potential breach.

d. To prevent premature release of data which spoils the reputation of the company.

e. To prevent unauthorized pre-release before data has been checked.The 3-2-1 rule in data backup suggests that you have 3 copies of the data, Use 2 different formats to store them, and have 1 offsite backup.

Data Backup devices and options

a. Hard drive – personal or work computer

b. Department server

c. External drives

d. Tape

e. Repositories

f. Archives

g. Cloud

Considerations for implementing data backups

a. Authorize users and clients who request server access.

b. Provide role-based access control for recovery operations.

c. Use encrypted data during transmission and storage.

d. Update encryption and authentication algorithms frequently.

e. Use firewalls for the centralized location of backups.

f. Backup and maintenance of a client system.

g. Follow security guidelines.

2. Data Archiving for Security

As a business grows, keeping track of huge amounts of data and managing them can be tricky. Data archiving is the process of retaining inactive data at a secure place for a long time.

Such data may or may not be used in the future but are required to be stored for its intended purpose.

Archives have search facilities. Indexed makes the retrieval fast and easy. Archives hold old information that is unnecessary for everyday tasks. Storing such inactive information in primary storage can reduce its efficiency.

Data archive helps in reducing the load on primary storage by moving unused resources to the archive.

The medium and device used for storing the archive data are carefully decided based on the utility. Determining which information goes to the archive and revisiting the archived data plays an important role in managing and monitoring the information.

Different forms of Data Archives

a. Online data – Store archives from any location.

b. Offline data – Storage archive data onto physical storage devices like tapes and disks.

c. Cloud storage – Store archive data is stored in the cloud and readily accessible.

Considerations for Data Archiving

a. Storage medium – Choosing a storage medium best suited for the chosen data.

b. Storage device – Pick a device that provides long-term support for archiving.

c. Revisiting old archives – Review archived data policies and check if they need to be migrated to a different location.

d. Data usability – To handle obsolete format data store the copies of installation media as well.

e. Selective archiving – Selecting a portion of the data with higher importance to store in the archive.

f. Space considerations – Depending on the duration of retention, a device with the appropriate amount of space must be utilized.

g. Online vs. offline storage – Identifying and choosing whether our business demands online-archives (on a dedicated archive server) or offline (on removable media). Either way, the primary requirement is that data must be readily accessible whenever required.

3. Disposal of Data

An organization should wipe out data regularly, whether that’s cleaning inboxes or getting rid of old databases that are no longer relevant. Data stored on physical storage devices like hard drives, USBs, tapes must be purged before discarding.

The information stored in the cloud is destroyed to keep the organization’s private data out of reach from criminals. Every company must do this whenever they get rid of something that holds data.

Benefits of data destruction

a. It cuts down storage cost and server space of inactive data.

b. Clearing the clutter helps in faster retrieving of data.

c. Retrieval of files becomes easier.

Considerations for data destruction

a. While disposing of the data, the organization must eliminate access to the data.

b. Destroy the data

c. Destroy the device.

d. Make sure the storage system is fully decommissioned.

e. Keep records of persons involved in decommissioning data.

f. They should track the records that contain potential clues and ensure it is eliminated.

g. Secure access to the storage till the time of disposal.

4. Location Security

Organizations face a daunting task in deciding where to locate their business-critical data. Since the amount of data is enormous it is stored across different devices in multiple locations from on-premises to cloud.

Knowing the location of the data center helps in planning the location security to protect the data. Companies usually locate their data hubs several miles outside the city. They need to look carefully into the location restrictions.

For example, the warehouse located in a disaster-prone area poses a huge risk of data compromise during a calamity.

5. Redundant Utilities

The data center has critical data and facilities required to keep the business up and running. To restrict unwanted intruders from entering the data center’s perimeter, strong security barriers must be set up. These barriers can be two-factor authentication, access control, or leveraging CCTV surveillance.

But no matter how complex the security is there will always be some data loss. This can be due to various reasons like employee negligence or malicious activity.

Hence duplication of critical components of the system becomes necessary. This increases the reliability of the system, improves performance, and provides a fail-safe backup.

Summary

Data security considerations are few practices followed to achieve a fair level of security in an organization. They include data backup, data archival, data destruction, location security, and maintaining redundant utilities.