Data Security Today: Threats, Techniques & Solutions

Data security is more important than ever. In 2022 alone, over 1,700 organizations worldwide have been affected by compromised data. With organizations relying heavily on technology to store and process sensitive information, the risk of data breaches is constantly rising.

This puts data security at the forefront of any organization’s security plan.

To help you understand more, we'll explore the definitions of data security, common threats, and solutions and guide you on implementing a data security strategy in this blog post.

Read on for a detailed explanation.

What is data security?

Data security is the practice of protecting digital information from unauthorized access, loss, or modification, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of an organization’s data.

While it may sound similar, data security and cyber security are actually two distinct concepts — data security is concerned with protecting private data, while cyber security is about guarding digital services and devices from malicious attacks.

Organizations must invest in data security strategies and platforms to combat the ever-growing risk of data theft. With a proper data security policy in place, organizations can identify sensitive data, secure their databases, and protect their valuable assets from potential breaches.

The importance of data security

Data security is essential for businesses to protect their data, intellectual property, customers’ personal information, and other sensitive assets. Safeguarding sensitive data is paramount for organizations to prevent the following:

• Financial losses
• Reputational damage
• Legal consequences
• Loss of customer trust due to data breaches

A data breach can expose personally identifiable information (PII) and put individuals at risk of identity theft and other malicious activities. In recent remote work trends in companies like Shopify and Twitter, remote working processes have added another layer of complexity to data security.

With users accessing data using personal devices and less secure networks, proper data access management is crucial to prevent unauthorized access and maintain data security. Organizations must prioritize the protection of sensitive information and implement robust data security strategies to safeguard their critical data from potential breaches and human error.

Common data security threats

Organizations face a variety of data security threats and challenges, including insider threats, phishing attacks, and ransomware. Each of these threats can have significant consequences if left unaddressed, potentially compromising your organization's data.

Let’s explore these common challenges in more detail.

Insider threats

Insider threats, both accidental and intentional, pose a significant risk to data security and can be caused by employees or other individuals with access to sensitive information. These threats can be categorized into three types:

• Intentional threats: deliberate actions by individuals with ill-will
• Unintentional threats: caused by a person’s unawareness or carelessness
• Malicious threats: perpetrated by a person with ill-will

Current or former employees, third-party partners, or contractors who utilize their legitimate access privileges to corrupt or steal sensitive data for personal gain or grievances can cause intentional insider threats.

On the other hand, unintentional insider threats are often the result of an inadvertent click on a link in a phishing email, which could compromise a user’s credentials or unleash ransomware or other malware on corporate systems.

To mitigate insider threats, organizations can implement the following measures:

• Deploy access control measures, such as authentication and authorization, to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive data.
• Use data loss prevention (DLP) solutions to detect and prevent the unauthorized transfer of data.
• Hold regular, frequent security awareness training for employees to ensure they understand the risks posed by insider threats and their role in maintaining data security.

Phishing attacks

Phishing attacks are malicious attempts to deceive individuals into providing sensitive information or access to accounts through emails or messages masquerading as trusted sources.

These social engineering attacks aim to trick victims into providing confidential information or clicking a malicious link, which could compromise user credentials or introduce ransomware or other malware on corporate systems. Email security tools are vital in detecting and preventing email-borne security threats.

Through the implementation of robust email security solutions, organizations can:

• Avoid employee clicks on malicious links.
• Avoid opening malicious attachments.
• Avoid visiting spoofed websites.
• Provide end-to-end encryption on email and mobile messages, ensuring the security of data.

Here are some steps to protect from phishing attacks:

1. Continuously raise awareness about phishing attacks among employees.
2. Train employees to recognize and report suspicious emails or messages.
3. Invest in employee education to ensure they understand the risks and best practices for avoiding phishing attacks.
4. Deploy advanced email security tools to detect and block phishing attempts.

Ransomware

Ransomware is a common form of malicious software. It can infiltrate corporate devices and encrypt sensitive data, making it inaccessible unless the decryption key is provided.  The repercussions of a ransomware attack can be severe, including data loss and monetary losses.

Organizations can safeguard against ransomware by employing data security measures such as encryption, data masking and access management. These security techniques help protect sensitive information from unauthorized access and breaches, reducing the risk of ransomware attacks and their potential consequences. In addition, having regular data backups and a well-defined disaster recovery plan in place will also help with data recovery in the event of a ransomware attack.

Techniques & solutions to secure your data

To effectively protect sensitive data from unauthorized access and breaches, organizations must employ a combination of essential data security techniques and solutions. In the following subsections, we'll discuss encryption, data masking, and access management as key components of a comprehensive data security strategy.

Encryption

Encryption converts readable data into an unreadable encoded form, preventing unauthorized access and ensuring data confidentiality. Data encryption is the process of transforming data from plaintext to unreadable ciphertext.

This secure encoding can protect your sensitive information from unauthorized access. Encryption is typically achieved using symmetric or asymmetric ciphers, which provide varying levels of security and performance. The purpose of data encryption is to:

• Protect sensitive information from unauthorized access by hackers.
• Be a crucial component of most security strategies.
• Be a requirement of many compliance standards.

This helps organizations ensure that even if data is intercepted or breached, it remains unreadable and useless to unauthorized users. To maximize the effectiveness of encryption, organizations should:

• Use strong encryption algorithms.
• Keep encryption keys secure.
• Regularly update encryption keys.
• Employ multi-factor authentication.

These measures can further enhance data security, making it more challenging for cybercriminals to gain access to encrypted data.

Data masking

Data masking is a technique that replaces sensitive data with fictional or scrambled information, allowing for secure data usage without exposing the original data. It is also known as data anonymization. This approach is particularly useful in scenarios where data must be shared or accessed for purposes such as software testing or data analysis. A variety of data masking techniques can be employed, including:

• Substitution
• Shuffling
• Masking with generated data

Each technique offers its own advantages and limitations, but the primary goal remains the same: to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access while maintaining its usability.

Implementing data masking as part of a comprehensive data security strategy can help organizations protect their sensitive information without hindering business processes or compromising data integrity.

Access management

Access management involves controlling and monitoring user access to sensitive data, systems, and networks, ensuring that only authorized individuals can access specific information. This process is a critical component of any data security strategy, as it guarantees that only authorized personnel can access sensitive data, systems, and networks.

Effective access management includes implementing access controls, such as authentication and authorization mechanisms, to validate user identities and grant access based on predefined rules.

Technologies such as privileged access management (PAM) and identity and access management (IAM) enable organizations to manage user identities, monitor access, and enforce security policies. This can help minimize the risk of unauthorized access to their sensitive data, reducing the likelihood of data breaches and ensuring compliance with data security regulations.

Regularly reviewing and updating access controls, along with providing ongoing security training for employees, can further strengthen an organization’s access management strategy.

How to implement a data security strategy

Implementing robust data security measures is not a one-size-fits-all approach. A combination of tools and techniques must be employed to safeguard sensitive information effectively.

1. Audit your data

The first step in creating an effective strategy is conducting a data inventory, which involves identifying and documenting all data generated, employed, and retained by an organization. This process helps organizations understand the scope of their data assets and prioritize their protection efforts.

2. Classify your classification

Next, data classification should be employed to label data based on its sensitivity and value, facilitating efficient management, storage, and security. Regular security audits and penetration testing can help organizations identify vulnerabilities in their security posture and address them proactively.

3. Apply & enforce data security policies

Additionally, organizations should establish and enforce data security policies, ensuring that all employees adhere to best practices and maintain a secure data environment. Data discovery plays a crucial role in this process, as it helps organizations locate and understand their data assets.

4. Train your employees

Regularly reviewing and updating security measures and providing ongoing employee training can further enhance an organization’s data security posture.

5. Ensure compliance with data security regulations

Finally, compliance with data security regulations should be an organization's top priority, as non-compliance can result in severe penalties, legal consequences, and reputational damage. Some common data security regulations include:

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)

(Learn all about data governance, the key to data compliance.)

Data security is as important as ever

To wrap things up, data security plays a crucial role in protecting an organization’s sensitive data and ensuring customer trust.

The road to comprehensive data security may seem challenging, but with a proactive approach and a commitment to ongoing improvement, organizations can successfully navigate the complexities of data protection and ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their sensitive data.