What measures are in place to ensure the security of your data?

Data

Data is a collection of facts, figures, objects, symbols, and events gathered from different sources. Organizations collect data with various data collection methods to make better decisions. Without data, it would be difficult for organizations to make appropriate decisions, so data is collected from different audiences at various points in time.

For instance, an organization must collect data on product demand, customer preferences, and competitors before launching a new product. If data is not collected beforehand, the organization’s newly launched product may fail for many reasons, such as less demand and inability to meet customer needs.

Although data is a valuable asset for every organization, it does not serve any purpose until analyzed or processed to get the desired results.

A phrase attributed to the creator of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, is that “data is precious and will last longer than the systems themselves.”

The computer scientist was referring to the fact that information is something highly coveted, one of the most valuable assets that companies have, so it must be protected. The loss of sensitive data can represent the bankruptcy of a company.

Faced with an increasing number of threats, it is necessary to implement measures to protect information in companies. And before doing so, it is necessary to classify the data you have and the risks to which you are exposed: the price list of the products that are marketed is not the same as the estimated sales figure that is planned to be achieved in the year or base. of customer data.

To talk about the cloud these days is to talk about a need for storage, flexibility, connectivity and decision making in real time. Information is a constantly growing asset and needs to be managed by work teams, and platforms such as Claro Drive Negocio offer, in addition to that storage space, collaboration tools to manage an organization’s data.

In cloud storage, the user, instead of saving the data on their computers or hard drives, does so somewhere in the remote location, which can be accessed through the internet service. There are several providers of these services that sell space on the network for different ranges, but few offer true security and protection of that gold that you have in your company called: data.

To give you context, more than a third of companies have consolidated flexible and scalable cloud models as an alternative to execute their workload and achieve their digital transformation, reducing costs. Hosted information management services allow IT to maintain control and administrators to monitor access and hierarchies by business units.

Five key security measures

Below are five security recommendations to protect information in companies:

Make backup copies or backups . Replicating or having a copy of the information outside the company’s facilities can save your operation in the event of an attack. In this case, options can be sought in the cloud or in data centers so that the protected information is available at any time. It is also important that the frequency with which the backup is made can be configured, so that the most recent data is backed up.
Foster a culture of strong passwords . Kaspersky recommends that passwords be longer than eight characters, including uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters. The manufacturer also suggests not including personal information or common words; use a password for each service ; change them periodically; Do not share them, write them on paper or store them in the web browser. Every year, Nordpass publishes a ranking of the 200 worst passwords used in the world. The worst four are “123456”, “123456789”, “picture1” and “password”.
Protect email. Now that most of the communication is done through this medium, it is advisable to have anti-spam filters and message encryption systems to protect and take care of the privacy of the data. Spam filters help control the receipt of unsolicited emails, which may be infected with viruses and potentially compromise the security of company data.
Use antivirus. This tool should provide protection against security threats such as zero-day attacks, ransomware, and cryptojacking. And it must also be installed on cell phones that contain company information.
Control access to information. One way to minimize the risk and consequent impact of errors on data security is to provide access to data according to the profile of each user. With the principle of least privilege, it is considered that, if a person does not have access to certain vital company information, he cannot put it at risk.

In security, nothing is too much

In a synthetic way, the National Cybersecurity Institute of Spain, INCIBE, recommends the following “basic security measures”:

Keep systems updated free of viruses and vulnerabilities
Raise awareness among employees about the correct use of corporate systems
Use secure networks to communicate with customers, encrypting information when necessary
Include customer information in annual risk analyses, perform regular backups, and verify your restore procedures
Implement correct authentication mechanisms, communicate passwords to clients securely and store them encrypted, ensuring that only they can recover and change them

The first time a company or business faces the decision to automate a process it can be somewhat intimidating, however, taking into account the following points, it is a simple task.

1.- Start with the easy processes

Many companies start considering automation because they have a large, inflexible process that they know takes up too much time and money. So they start with their most complex problem and work backwards. This strategy is generally expensive and time-consuming, what you should do is review your most basic processes and automate them first. For example, are you emailing a document with revisions when you should be building an automated workflow? There are probably dozens, if not hundreds of these simple processes that you can address and automate before taking on your “giant” process.

2.- Make sure your employees lose their fear of automation

Many times an employee who is not familiar with an automated process is afraid of it. Because? In general he is afraid that automation will eliminate his position. That’s why it’s important to build a supportive culture around automation and get your employees to understand that just because some of their work is now being assisted by an automated process , it doesn’t mean they are any less valuable.