Strategies to Prevent Data Breaches

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Using the right strategies to prevent data breaches is critical for business success. It takes time and money to identify and contain a breach.

Encryption

The threat of data breaches and ransomware is well known, and stopping them is a top priority for most security professionals. However, even with the best security software and employee training, it's almost impossible to prevent a data breach 100% of the time. That's why encryption is so important.

Encryption makes all the data a hacker attempts to steal illegible and unusable. This makes it extremely difficult to exploit sensitive information and prevents data breaches.

Many businesses still determine the best way to secure their data when migrating to the cloud or working remotely. With encryption, a company can ensure that all data sent and stored on any device is protected, whether a personal mobile phone, tablet, or laptop.

This type of encryption helps companies protect themselves against costly consequences such as hefty fines, public slander, and loss of trust in customers.

Security Software

Just as office security prevents thieves from breaking into a building, cyber security software helps prevent data breaches that expose confidential information to malicious actors. Weak passwords, unpatched software vulnerabilities, phishing attacks, and staff ignorance or malicious intent are common causes of a breach. If left unchecked, a single breach can cost an organization millions in lost proprietary knowledge, legal and reputational damage.

Once hackers have breached a private network, they use reconnaissance to identify where sensitive information is located. Adding resistance to the attack pathway is essential by limiting access to sensitive regions via micro-segmentation and encrypting that data where it resides within those closed networks.

It's also essential to provide tamper-proof evidence of unauthorized data leaks for use in disciplinary action or court cases.

Network Security

Network security protects networks from cyberattacks, protecting data that cannot be achieved with firewalls or other technical tools alone. The granular access control provided by network security enables only authorized users to connect to the organization's critical data, devices, and applications.

This is accomplished by using a series of policies, procedures, and protocols that verify a user's identity by requiring not only "something the user has" (password, security token or 'dongle,' fingerprint or retinal scan) but also "something the user knows." It may use multiple authentication layers- often called three-factor authentication.

It includes a device inventory, encrypting data on portable storage devices, blocking access to unsecure Wi-Fi, and enforcing strict password standards. It can also prevent malware from entering the system by enforcing the latest updates to operating systems and endpoint antivirus software. It can block unauthorized connections by closing ports and dropping malformed communication packets. It also uses hardware appliances such as switches, routers, and firewalls to prevent unauthorized changes or access. Network security is vital for any work ecosystem that deals with large amounts of sensitive data. The more robust the security measures are, the less likely a data breach will occur and the faster the business can recover from the financial, reputational, and operational fallout.

Data Loss Prevention

A data breach occurs when confidential, private, or protected information is exposed to unauthorized individuals. This can result from an intentional attack or an unintentional mistake or oversight by an employee. It can also be caused by flaws and vulnerabilities in an organization's infrastructure.

Data breaches are expensive and devastating to businesses of all sizes. They can cause lost revenue, brand damage, a loss of customers, and ultimately, financial ruin. To help prevent these costly attacks, every business should establish a comprehensive data loss prevention strategy that includes best practices and security solutions for protecting sensitive information.

A robust DLP solution will identify and help prevent risky or inappropriate sharing, transfer, or use of sensitive data on-premises, in the cloud, and across apps and devices. It will provide visibility and granular control to protect critical assets and meet compliance requirements. In addition, it will help reduce the risk of human error, which is often the root cause of data breaches. For example, a phishing scam targeting employees can expose sensitive data or allow hackers to access the company network.

Training

Data breaches make headlines with alarming frequency and significantly impact your company. They can lead to financial losses, legal action, and damage to your corporate reputation. The good news is that the most common reason for a data breach isn't some savvy hacker brute-forcing through your defenses—it's human error. This is where training can help prevent data breaches from happening.

The typical cyberattack pathway leading to a breach can be broken down into 5 phases: target researched: hackers research your business, including looking at court records, financial filings, and partners for potential entry points. Vulnerabilities scanned: next, hackers scan systems and their open ports, enumerating devices and accounts to find vulnerabilities they can exploit.

To avoid this, businesses need to implement best practices. These include cataloging sensitive information, implementing security controls to prevent network penetration, installing patches and updates as soon as they become available, using strong passwords, and deploying web filters and two-factor authentication. These are all proven strategies to prevent data breaches.