3 Effective Ways to Protect a Business From a Data Breach

3 Effective Ways to Protect a Business From a Data Breach

Data breaches are an increasing threat to businesses of all types and sizes yet many business owners don’t know how to avoid them. These breaches are disruptive and costly, thus it is necessary to know how to prevent them and what to do should they occur. Having a plan that thwarts cyberattacks in place, you can effectively protect your company or business against a data breach. The following proven strategies can help to keep your data safe.

1. Educate Your Employees

Training your employees on ways to stay vigilant and conscious of threats is the first step toward protecting your company from a data breach. Your team needs to be aware of how to spot and handle possible suspicious activity when they come across it. Many data breaches occur when employees open malicious files, attachments, or websites that infect their computers. You need to constantly remind them to keep cybersecurity at the top of their minds.

You can have certain policies and procedures that your employees understand for the benefit of data security. Make them understand your user access rules, password requirements, and other data security measures. Teach them how to recognize email scams, especially the less obvious ones such as phishing where the emails seem to come from legit companies, yet they contain malware. Warn your employees against clicking on links and email attachments.

2. Evaluate Your Current Security Procedures

Another important step is analyzing your present security protocols and layering them as best as you can. Having several layers of security will make it harder for hackers to infiltrate the multiple safeguards before accessing sensitive data. The tools that you can use to prevent sensitive data from getting into the wrong hands include firewalls, encryption, secure file-sharing software, and top antivirus software.

You need to have frequent data backup so that if a breach occurs, your system will restore swiftly and easily to the most current data. Always make sure to use the current antivirus software and delete all suspicious files immediately.

3. Protect Your Cloud Storage

If the cloud-based storage service that you use offers security tools, it would still be best if you configure your safety measures. You can use a single sign-on or multi-factor authentication as an extra layer of protection and limit cloud access to your employees. You might need to consider hiring the service of a cloud access security broker (CASB) for continuous data visibility, monitoring, security, and governance. CASB monitors all cloud-based file storage and uses user behavior and machine learning to detect any unauthorized events or users.

You can use CASB to provide real-time responses in preventing hackers from accessing your sensitive information. The software will block unauthorized access to your sensitive data even when you are not watching. Cloud data breaches are caused by weak security procedures and improper configuration. Assuming that your cloud service provider will ensure maximum protection of your data may lead to leaks in their security measures. It is your responsibility to ensure that the data you have in the cloud storage is secure.