Working in the 21st century is analytics-based. Today, your company’s competitive environment is data-driven. Data sheds light on the behaviors and operations of your customers and business performance, which helps you make smarter decisions and improve processes. Yet, the sprawl of employees working from home exposes your organization to more than a few security risks. Working remotely can expose your organization to a great many security threats if there are no policies in place to limit how employees access, use, store, and delete company data.
According to the FBI, cybersecurity complaints increased from 1,000 to 4,000 complaints daily during COVID-19. The growing number of data breaches is yet another reason why data security needs to be a top priority for business professionals everywhere. A combination of data security policies, employee education and awareness, and cybersecurity measures will keep your company from having a breach
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What is Data Security? Why is it Important?
A solid data security policy is essential for protecting your organization’s sensitive company and customer data. But before we can tackle policies, let’s go over some important definitions. It is important to understand the difference between data privacy and security to develop a clearly defined policy. Data privacy is managing and storing sensitive information properly according to the law. In comparison, data security is the process of protecting sensitive information, such as company and customer data, and it is mandated at a company level, rather than a federal one. It it important to address both – but companies are legally obligated to take care of data privacy, but data security is increasingly becoming required by other bodies of regulation other than the government, like insurance carriers. Keep in mind both when addressing company data.
As you build the cyber security policy for your organization, it’s useful to know which types of data are considered “personal.” PII stands for Personally Identifiable Information and can come in many different forms – like name, address, and more private information like social security numbers and credit card information. All of this data needs to be secured on different levels, and data security policies ensure that when new data is entered into your system it follows the property security protocol to minimize the chance of a data breach (45% of all businesses have had to deal with a data breach, and there’s been a 68% increase YOY from 2020 to 2021). It’s better to have a data security policy rather than dealing with a fallout from a breach. Data security is the process of protecting sensitive information, such as personal data and trade secrets, from unauthorized access and exploitation. It also concerns the technologies, processes and measures that organizations establish to protect sensitive information.
Consequences of Not Having a Data Security Policy for Your Business
Despite the increasing number of data breaches, the majority of small and midsized businesses still do not have well-established data security policies. The lack of a data security programs can open the door to a variety of security risks, such as data theft, data tampering and unauthorized access to sensitive information. Despite the high number of data breaches, many small and midsized businesses are not adequately prepared for it. It can also have the following serious consequences:
Damage Brand Reputation: A security breach will tarnish your brand’s favorable image and could cause your customers to lose interest and trust. Once they believe that you will leak their information, it is much harder to get them to purchase the next time around.
Disrupt Business Operations: Downtime from the moment a security incident occurs, right up to restoration, severely affects business operations, leading to low productivity, revenue loss and unhappy customers. As a note of caution; this is a separate insurance clause on a cybersecurity plan that usually has higher overheads, but will pay out in the event of downtime due to a breach.
Legal Implications: When organizations fall victim to data breaches, they face fines, legal action and compensation to customers.
Loss of Intellectual Property: Because of a data breach connected in any way to your business, you are at risk of losing important intellectual property such as patents, blueprints and other certifications.
How to Start Developing a Data Security Policy:
Anyone can be victim of data breaches, and the cost of recovering your harbored information can be greater than taking the time to prepare your confidential information beforehand. The costs of recovering compromised data can outweigh the costs of taking preemptive measures against breaches – so why not planning preemptively. Read on to find out how.
Protecting your organization’s most valuable resource requires far more than an IT Security program. Having a well-documented Security Policy is an indispensable step in protecting sensitive data and minimizing threats. Sharing and curbing the information across different branches is the key to establishing data protection policies for your organization.
Key Elements of a Good Data Security Policy
Identifying both internal and external factors that could interrupt business operations will help form a robust data security policy. You should include these elements in your data protection policies:
Data Privacy: As businesses collect massive amounts of customer data, it is imperative to ensure confidential customer records are safeguarded from prying eyes and opportunist scammers. Including a data privacy plan in place in compliance with regulations will not only help you stay compliant but also is an important step in preventing any kind of data misuse. This often means encrypting emails if they contain sensitive information
Password Management: According to the 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, over 80 percent of data breaches due to hacking are password-related. It is crucial that you implement a strong password management policy for all employees with access to your company resources so as to mitigate the risks of security breaches. The policy should state the need for password updates periodically, how data and passwords are secured, and the consequences of violating the policies and procedures. You can also require a Password Manager program that allows you to store all of your passwords in an encrypted program that allows you to auto-fill all of your passwords (that’s what we use here at KPInterface).
Internet Usage: Businesses today rely heavily on internet for the smooth functioning of day-to-day operations. This dependency also makes them vulnerable to different types of security risks. Therefore, it’s important to have an internet usage policy to guide your employees on internet usage for safely accessing the digital space. Additionally, your employees should know that surfing restricted sites and downloading unnecessary files are forbidden. If they violate these rules, they could be terminated. You can protect your internet too – with strong firewalls and VPN access to your network.
Email Usage: In the 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report, 94 percent of malware was delivered through email. Check out some of the policies you can use to protect you, your employees, and your organization from email-based threats. An email policy is essential for limiting the risks of your employees and organizations becoming victims of phishing attacks and other email-based threats such as hacking using malware and lived attacks. A carefully outlined email policy will improve the likelihood of quickly identifying and neutralizing potential threats as well as ensuring both legal, risk assessment and operational goes wrong are overlooked. Also consider giving your employees a regular phishing simulation so you can see how likely your company is to be breached via email (ask your IT provider to set up something like this for you).
Company-Owned and Personal Employee Devices: Every employee uses multiple devices daily for work. Remote access through workplace devices has multiplied security risks, especially passwords and notes accessible to anyone else. Having a company-owned device philosophy will help in better management, monitoring and security in devices and the information thereon. In order to manage, monitor and secure company-owned and personal employee devices such as laptops, cellphones and office desks, a corporate policy is key.
As personal employee devices are used for both recreational and business purposes, it’s hard to monitor and control personal devices, which can be easily exploited. By following a comprehensive information security policy in your offices, you can minimize the risk of a data breach. For example, you should install up-to-date security systems, direct your staff to connect to the office network through a secure VPN, and immediately report any lost or stolen devices.
Software User Agreements: It is vital for software users to comply with the end-user license agreement. Breaching this agreement may result in lawsuits and fines. Ensure your employees are aware of this policy to ensure all software used is legal and approved by your company.
Reporting Security Breaches: All businesses are at risk from a data breach. It’s important for a company to have an Incident Response Plan in place and what that plan calls for. In the event of a data breach, your employees need to immediately report an incident to it with less negative impact on the business. A data breach policy provides guidance for your company to manage data breaches. A data breach policy will help your employees know, step-by-step, the appropriate actions to be taken in the event of a data breach. Make sure employees know how to manage such situations and implement appropriate internal procedures.
Conquer the Challenge of Data Policies
For any organization, data is a valuable asset that needs to be protected at all costs. Adding to the challenge are the constantly evolving and complex data privacy regulations that every business should comply with.
To find out how you can secure your data while staying compliant with regulations, contact us now.
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