From phishing and ransomware attacks to unintended misuse and nation-state actors, cyber threats show themselves in various kinds. Today, more organizations are at risk of these threats. For one, there has been an increase in online connectivity. Cybercriminals are also finding new ways to exploit their data systems. It is essential to have a comprehension of data loss prevention (DLP) and security measures to address these hazards effectively.
The term data loss prevention (DLP) denotes a collection of methods and instruments aimed at safeguarding an organization’s confidential information against unauthorized access, alteration, or exposure. It is vital to understand how DLP actually works to effectively implement it within your organization. Numerous resources are available online to educate yourself on the topic.
By implementing strong DLP practices, organizations can prevent the loss of reputation and legal mishaps that can occur due to a successful cyberattack. Here are three best practices in data security that you can apply in your own organization.
- Boost Your Endpoint Security To Protect Data
Endpoint security is about protecting entry points or endpoints of end-user devices, such as mobile devices, desktops, or laptops. Endpoint security prevents unauthorized access by malicious actors and cyber threat campaigns, helping to protect your digital privacy and secure crucial data.
This type of security has gone from using typical antivirus software to offering extensive protection from advanced malware and constantly developing zero-day threats.
To enhance your organization’s endpoint security, consider implementing the following measures:
- Implement Proper Encryption
This data security practice offers additional protection to your devices and data. Thus, you must encrypt all hard drives connected to your network to boost endpoint security. As a result, hackers and suspicious actors can’t access crucial data on an endpoint device if they obtain such a device.
- Monitor All Devices Connected To Your Network
To maintain proper network safety, your organization must constantly track all endpoint devices connected to your network. To achieve this, you can list the number of endpoints your organization possesses, such as devices, staff-owned devices, business phones, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. You can also use trustworthy endpoint management software to monitor the real-time visibility of network devices.
- Offer Your Staff The Ideal Cybersecurity Training
Today, there has been a rise in remote and hybrid work. Yet, these work setups can lead to risks for some reasons. For one, it increases the chance that these individuals will work through their own personal devices. They’ll also likely do their job by accessing less secure internet networks. These two risks may lead to data loss.
Because of the risks mentioned above, organizations must focus on giving their staff proper cybersecurity training. Below are two best practices that you can apply immediately if you want to undertake such an aim:
- Incorporate Cybersecurity Into Your Organization’s Culture
Taking cybersecurity as one of your employees’ tasks must become deeply ingrained into your organization’s culture. You must stir and reward your staff for having proper caution on each possible cyber threat.
- Encourage Them To Use The Internet While At Work Cautiously
Avoiding suspicious emails or online links from unknown sources must be a priority in your training. These links may contain malicious software that can infect your organization’s devices, leading to data breaches and ransomware. Thus, setting safe browsing rules and limits on internet usage during work must be emphasized.
- Employ Adequate Access Controls
Access control is about limiting access to crucial data to those with their identity authenticated and authorized. With proper authentication, an organization can verify users as the people they say they are. Likewise, authorization is needed to ensure that users can access the data.
At present, setting appropriate access controls is one of the most crucial steps to securing data. It’s because there has been a rise in collecting and selling access descriptors on the dark web. This eases the effort for cybercriminals to buy access to systems and organizations. When cybercriminals gain access to systems and organizations, they can deploy these systems as entry points to a targeted attack.
If you want to implement proper access control, the following are tips you can consider:
- Put more focus on use cases.
- Use multiple security layers.
- Apply the principle of least privilege.
- Connect access to user roles.
- Reassess and improve access controls constantly.
Ultimately, implementing proper access controls can be good prevention against cyber threats. This is more ideal than dealing with a cyber-attack after it occurs.
Wrapping Up
More cyber-attacks are happening daily. When these attacks happen to an organization, they can lead to a loss of reputation or legal repercussions, among others. Knowing how to secure your data and prevent its loss is vital to solving this issue. This article tackled three examples of best practices for such an aim. Once you apply these practices, you can ensure proper safety against malicious actors that can benefit your staff and operations over time.
