Data protection refers to a set of strategies and processes for protecting sensitive data from compromise, corruption, or loss. The data protection strategy assures that the organization’s data is also available for future use and in the worst case of data loss, the system should restore it to the functional state. The protected data is available whenever needed and is always in usable form.

Scope of Data Protection

The scope of data protection goes from small-and-medium-sized firms to larger corporations and government agencies. That is, data protection is an inherent security component of any firm that collects, stores, or handles confidential data.

Aside from safeguarding the data from unauthorized users, data protection entails a comprehensive and holistic system for data preservation, destruction, and immutability.  

Why Data Protection is so Important

Even in the smaller or local firms, the data continues to grow at an exponential rate, making it ever-challenging to store and secure it. This data is extremely important for employees’ confidentiality, business operations, strategies, and development plans.

Data protection guarantees accessibility to only authorized or approved users and bars cyber criminals from breaching the data network and accessing the information. Companies are required to strictly follow data regulation laws. Non-compliance with these rules can result in fines or even loss of brand authority.

Plus, data protection ensures the 24/7 availability of data. Especially after any corruption or loss as a downtime of even a few minutes can make it impossible to access important information and cost the company huge losses.  

How to Ensure Data Protection

Below are several best practices that every organization should follow for protecting confidential data:

• Use advanced security software to protect data from malware or cyberattacks.
• Never open an unsolicited email or link.
• Set unique and strong passwords of at least 12 characters or more. Having a mix of upper and lower case letters, digits, and special characters and symbols also helps.
• Never write down your passwords on any paper or online document.
• Don’t open personal, confidential information on unsecured Wi-Fi networks. Don’t type passwords on public Wi-Fi.
• Be careful while opening unsolicited attachments. Just be hovering the mouse the link may give you an indication of where it’s going to lead you. Destroy the email if it raises even the slightest of doubt.
• Use a password manager to enforce and easily manage strong passwords for all accounts.
• Enforce 2FA on all computers.

For more information on advanced access control solutions for workstations, contact GateKeeper Enterprise.