Data security is a collection of tools, technologies and practices that work together to protect digital data. It protects data from unauthorized access to, disruption, modification, or destruction as per the organization’s risk strategy. It is an essential part of safeguarding the valuable assets of your company in compliance with the law, and ensuring the trust of your customers your brand.
The elements of data security include security, integrity, and confidentiality. Confidentiality involves ensuring that only the intended recipients are able to view the data, which can be achieved through encryption and secure communication channels. Integrity guarantees that data remains in its original form and is accurate. This can be achieved through data backup and validation processes. Access control policies and redundancy of data can help ensure that data is always accessible.
Many attacks are based on the ability of attackers to gain access to sensitive information such as medical records, intellectual properties and business-critical financial metrics. Secure data security protocols will protect this data from attack and help companies avoid costly consequences such as ransom payments, revenue loss from interrupted operations, incident response expenses, fines and legal fees.
Security solutions for data include encrypting, data masking, and redaction of sensitive files. Authentication is an essential aspect of data security that ensures that users are who they claim to be are and that they are not attempting to impersonate another user or system. This authentication can be established through biometric scans, certificates and multi-factor authentication. These tools can be combined with encryption to offer an extra layer of protection.