Data security management is more vital than ever, with a rising cyber-attack surface, regular supply chain breaches, and a transition to the cloud. By IBM Security’s 2023 Value of a Data Breach Report, the median worldwide cost of a data breach achieved a record-setting high of $4.45 million in 2023.
As stated in Flashpoint’s 2022 One Year in Review report, almost 39 billion datasets were accessed between January and the end of December last year. While this conclusion is astounding, it also conveys a strong message about the importance of adequate database security procedures.
Data security methods differ slightly from network security techniques. The former entails physical steps, software products, and even employee education. However, protecting your site is equally critical to reducing the various attack paths that cyber criminals may exploit.
Continue reading to get all the details regarding secure data management and its best practices.
Table of Contents
What is Data Security Management?
There are many different definitions of data management security, and there are numerous data security technologies. Every firm must explicitly identify and describe its data safety program and data safety measures, which will vary slightly from location to location. In general, you can define data management security as:
- The technique of ensuring that data (in whatever form it takes) is safe from unauthorized entry or corruption while in your ownership and use.
- I am using technological (cybersecurity) and physical techniques to protect data.
- Data gathering, use, preservation, retrieval, and deletion are all monitored to ensure that data remains intact at any stage.
- The establishment of technological protections that minimize data loss from interior hostile actions or hacking.
- To increase data leak prevention, encourage program and service developers to evaluate against data security standards.
- Policies that educate and control individuals on the relevance of data security and how to effectively safeguard themselves and their organizations.
- The safety of data transmitted with third-party applications or services.
- Utilizing encrypted cloud-based storage or encrypted networked clouds to secure information exchange and sharing.
Why is Managing Data Security Important?
Only 5% of firms’ documents and folders are securely secured, under a Varonis survey. Data security management enables you to limit potential hazards and the frequency of successful assaults on your company’s data. Here are some further reasons why you should establish secure data management:
- Data breaches are expensive: Your vital information will be encrypted if a ransomware attack is successful. You will either forfeit the data or give the ransom, provided you have adequate backups in place. As reported by Coveware, the average extortion in 2020 will cost $233,000. Even if you choose to retrieve your data rather than pay a ransom, you will incur losses due to unavailability; therefore, even if there is no ransomware threat, any data loss will incur costs.
- Continuity of operations: If, for instance, you lose possession of your e-commerce database for a while, your entire business’s activities will become halted for that hour, resulting in lost business prospects in addition to monetary damage.
- Poor reputation: Furthermore, if you lose the needs of your customer’s data or it is revealed as a result of a successful breach, you will be required to report it to regulators, which will result in reputational damage.
Also Read: Top 43 Cyber Security Tools to Improve Your Network Security
10 Best Practices for Secure Data Management
Let’s look at 10 secure data management best practices that will assist you in protecting your sensitive data.
Implement Physical Data Security
Physical attacks by outsiders or even insider danger can occur in data centers or your systems. If cybercriminals gain distant access to the physical data management server, they can take the critical data, corrupt it, or even inject perilous software. Because these types of assaults can circumvent data security procedures, they are frequently challenging to identify without additional security measures.
If you host your servers, you should consider adding physical safety precautions such as cameras, locks, and staffed security guards. Additionally, you should track and restrict any physical server connectivity to specific individuals to reduce the possibility of malicious activity.
Distinct Data Management Servers
Data management necessitates unique security procedures to protect them against cyberattacks. Additionally, keeping your data security management measures on the same thing server as your online presence exposes it to many attack paths that target websites.
Distinct your Data Management Servers from every other component to reduce these security threats. Furthermore, risk management solutions have proven successful at accurately assessing the security threats of each of your network’s assets.
Do Not Use The Default Network Ports
The TCP and UDP connections are employed when data is transmitted between servers. When you set up these procedures, they use the default network connections.
When refraining from using the default ports, a cybercriminal that targets the computer must use trial and error to test multiple port number variants. This may dissuade the assailant from extending their attack attempts owing to the more significant work required.
Configure An HTTPS Proxy Server
Before reaching the data security management server, a proxy server checks requests submitted from a workstation. This server serves as a gatekeeper in some ways, attempting to keep non-authorized queries out.
HTTP is the most commonly used protocol for proxy servers. Build up an HTTPS server if you’re working with sensitive information like passwords, payment details, or personal information. This way, you can likewise encrypt the data passing via a proxy server, adding an extra degree of security.
Implement Real-Time Database Monitoring
Constantly scanning your data management systems for attempted breaches strengthens your data security and helps you respond to possible assaults.
Monitoring applications, such as Tripwire’s real-time File Identity Monitoring (FIM), may track all actions executed on the data management server and notify you of any vulnerabilities. Set up escalation measures for a potential attack to secure your critical data.
Make Use Of Database And Web-Based Application Firewalls
Firewalls are the initial line of defense against unauthorized access to your business. Aside from safeguarding your website, you must also deploy a firewall to secure your database from several attack vectors.
Three distinct kinds of firewalls are widely employed for managing data security:
- Firewall with packet filtering.
- Stateful package inspection.
- Firewall on the proxy server.
Also Read: How to Install CSF and LDF Firewall on a Linux server and manage from WHM/ cPanel
Implement Data Encryption Techniques
It is one of the best practices in data security management. Encrypting your data is vital not only for protecting trade secrets but also for moving or retaining sensitive user information, guarding against ransomware infections, and complying with data privacy requirements such as the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR.
Using data encryption measures reduces the likelihood of an effective data breach. Even if fraudsters gain access to your data, it will stay secure. It also implies that your data remains safe not only in use but also in transit, which is where it is frequently vulnerable.
Make Routine Backups Of Your Database
While it is customary to maintain duplicates of your website, it is critical to create copies of your computer’s database regularly, with one copy encrypted.
This reduces the possibility of losing critical information due to hostile assaults or data loss. The 3-2-1 backup rule is best practice:
- Maintain three separate copies of the data.
- Use two different types of storage.
- Keep one at a particular location.
Maintain Application Updates
According to research, 88% of programs contain obsolete software parts. Furthermore, outdated plugins attract malware exploits and generate open risk factors that hackers can exploit to gain access to other sections of your network. When considering software, you may use it to administer your database or even your website, creating a severe security risk.
While you should only use reputable data security management software, you must also keep it up to date and download new patches as they become accessible. The same goes for components, plugins, and third-party apps, with the extra recommendation to avoid those that haven’t gotten frequent updates. Stay away from them entirely.
Make Use Of Robust User Authentication
Single-factor authorization (SFA) systems are recognized to be hazardous, and others say that the password is extinct. Even social media sites are advised to employ two-factor authentication (2FA), while MFA (multi-factor authentication) is widely acknowledged as the norm for safe user authorization today. It also plays an essential function in assisting firms in qualifying for cyber insurance.
Consider enabling only validated Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for accessing the database to further reduce the danger of a potential compromise. While IP addresses can be cloned or masked, the attacker must exert more effort.
Conclusion
One of the most critical elements in contemporary organizational security is data security. You should develop a well-thought-out, sophisticated, yet usable policy. Revise and test it regularly to keep up with the business’s process and infrastructure changes. It reduces the likelihood of a cost-prohibitive or even disastrous data loss. Comment your queries about data management security and get valuable answers from our professional team accordingly!
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
What Are The 3 Types Of Data Security?
Hardware, software, and legal security are examples of data security. A physical device, for example, could only allow users with a specific device to access data. Software security can detect and eradicate threats. Arresting and convicting criminals may be part of legal security.
What Are The 5 Key Components Of Security Management?
The goals are security, authenticity, availability, confidentiality, authentication, and responsibility. In the future, these data security management components will function as the starting point for further refining through a poll of certified data safety specialists.
What Are The 4 C’s Security?
The four C’s of data security reflect the four core levels of an application designed using this technology, which require developers and DevOps teams to adhere to cloud computing security standards. Code security, Container security, Cluster security, and Cloud security are the 4 C’s of Security.