Protect Your Business from Data Breaches with These Simple Techniques

Data breaches are sadly becoming more regular as cyberhackers become more sophisticated and data becomes more valuable. It’s no longer simply an issue of money. The power of data largely now lies in access to information, especially private information. For this reason, it is up to each organization to take all the steps possible to protect against data breaches and maintain clients’ trust.

But not all protective measures are complicated or expensive. Here are the five simple steps that can go a long way toward protecting your business against data breaches.

1. Educate Your Employees

The first and most important step in protecting your business from data breaches is to educate your employees. Quite often, employees don’t release crucial information on purpose. Instead, many data breaches can be attributed to careless behavior or a lack of awareness. An employee might log in to do work at home and forget to log out, creating vulnerability due to an unsecured server. Maybe they neglect to perform a gal sync and open an email from a scammer pretending to be a coworker. Many innocent mistakes can lead to tragic data breaches.

You can protect against the vast majority of these innocent mistakes simply by educating your employees on security. Hold regular security meetings with your security team to teach your employees about common methods employed by hackers and scammers. Then, explain the consequences of a data breach. Finally, teach them how to protect company data regardless of where they work from.

2. Implement Strong Passwords and Multi-factor Authentication

Far too many people still have the same password they’ve had since they were teenagers. Worse, they have a single password for every single site and app they log into. This approach to security may be fine if you’re only protecting your own data — personal emails, small bank accounts, and social media accounts. But if you’re charged with keeping company data secure, it’s time to step it up.

To that end, ensure your employees receive proper education on creating strong passwords and on password protocol in general. They should know to use different passwords for different sites and to store their passwords with an encrypted password manager like 1Password or LastPass. Then, ensure all the sites and apps your company uses also utilize multi-factor authentication. It’s an extra layer of protection for you and your staff.

3. Restrict Access to Sensitive Data

There was a time when companies had a single site where they stored data, and all employees who had access to that site also had access to all the data stored there. This open approach to access allows for “too many cooks in the kitchen.” The more people within your company who can log in and view highly secure information, the more vulnerable that information will be. Thus, it is essential you follow the principle of least privilege with your cybersecurity.

The principle of least privilege says that every member of your staff only has access to the data that is essential to their jobs. There are several cybersecurity companies that can help you layer in levels of security, which opens or closes access to data in real-time as employees are onboarded, promoted, and leave the company. Once you implement this principle, ensure you keep access tiers up to date and educate any high-level employees.

4. Update Your Software and Back Up Your Data Regularly

It might seem like a simple little tip, but failing to update your software can lead to increased vulnerabilities within your organization. After all, your security measures can only be as strong as you empower them to be. Part of the reason for software updates is to ensure each system has the most innovative security features in place. Check on your software regularly for updates and sign up for security notifications from your software companies.

Updates help with preventing hackers from accessing your data. But if a hacker does manage to get into your system, a backup can save your bacon. For example, a ransomware attack can be devastating and essentially lock you out of your own system. If you have a full backup available, you can restore your data without paying off the hacker. Just be aware that cloud backups can also be vulnerable to ransomware. Approximately 94% of ransomware victims also have their backups targeted.

So while it’s a pain and may seem like an antiquated practice, you should consider regularly backing up your company data to an external hard drive. You might feel like a luddite while you do it, but you’ll be glad you did if you’re ever targeted by ransomware.

5. Leverage AI

Finally, you are running a business in the digital age. It’s time to leverage the power of AI when it comes to cybersecurity. You can be sure cybercriminals are leveraging AI. Indeed, they’re running programs that can continuously test your firewalls and attempt to breach your data. AI is only getting smarter thanks to machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP). This level of intelligence means a relentless onslaught of cybersecurity attacks is possible.

Choose a cybersecurity service provider you trust or hire your own cybersecurity team to protect your data. They should be knowledgeable in how to build and install AI programs that will stay one step ahead of cyber hacking AI. Through those same functions of ML and NLP, AI can continually monitor your data and your firewalls, keeping them secure against attacks. When an attack is imminent, a strong AI program will know how to shut down all access and alert the key players.

In the end, storing data for employees and clients is a tremendous amount of responsibility. Fortunately, you can educate your staff, update your software and back up your data, and leverage AI to keep the information you store secure. Doing so can help maintain the trust of your clients and keep business flowing as normal.