5 Ways To Improve The Security Of Your Company’s Databases
by Arina Smith Technology 23 April 2021
Your business probably has an awful lot of data – like usernames, email addresses, and phone numbers – at its fingertips. “Awful” could seem a strangely appropriate word to use, too, given how much of this data you could have inadvertently left unsecured.
In recent research mentioned by TechRepublic, a white hat hacker discovered 9,517 unsecured databases with over 10.4 billion entries between them. So, what could you do to help prevent your own company’s databases from falling prey to unscrupulous cyber thieves?
Sort Your Sensitive Data From Your Less Risky Data
While a data breach can certainly be damaging to your business, the exact extent of the damage could depend on the sensitivity of the data that gets leaked.
Alphr provides some tips for assessing just how business-critical or sensitive certain segments of your data are. You should identify how the data is used and where it is stored as well as what could be at stake if this data was compromised. Then, you could dedicate more of your resources to securing the higher-risk data.
Limit Access To Certain Data Strictly To People Who Genuinely Need It
You are bound to see all of your employees as trustworthy, as they wouldn’t be in your employ otherwise. Sadly, though, when a data breach does happen, “it’s often due to workers in junior positions accidentally leaking login details”, Entrepreneur Handbook explains.
Therefore, you should use a system like Wandera’s Zero Trust Network Access tool to selectively assign access only to workers who truly need it – so that, if there is a breach, the damage will be limited.
Encrypt Your Data Without Barring It From Your Own View
The word “encryption” can scare some business owners, if possibly only because they are unsure how to encrypt their sensitive data. Fortunately, though, this argument against encryption has – unlike encryption itself – weakened over time, as this particular cybersecurity weapon has become easier to wield.
Watch out for software and other digital tools that utilize encryption but will also allow your workforce to easily fetch your data from its encrypted storage as and when necessary.
Transfer Your Data To The Cloud
Like encrypting data, putting it in the cloud can be a controversial move. However, it actually makes a lot of sense for many businesses – especially small ones.
While your company might itself lack the time or knowledge to keep track of all of the relevant security issues, a good cloud service provider (CSP) won’t have the same problem. As a result, you can trust them to patch software and enact security on your behalf while looking after your data.
Tech’s Get Physical, Physical
As even Olivia Newton-John would probably agree, you should secure not just your hardware, such as by fitting Kensington locks on work desktops and laptops, but also your premises. So, don’t forget to install alarms in your office and keep its doors and windows locked outside of work hours.
You should also consider paper and document shredding to avoid leaving paper trails for cybercriminals to potentially notice.
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