7 Data Security Best Practices for Your Enterprise

When it comes to cybersecurity, some enterprises still take it with a grain of salt. But make no mistake about it: No one is safe. Companies such as BBC made it into the list of victims of the most significant data breaches in 2023, contributing to a staggering 5.3 billion total breached records. So, it’s safe to say data security best practices are critical in today’s day and age, especially for enterprises.

In this article, you’ll find all you need to know about best data security practices and unique cybersecurity methods, such as employing rotating proxies and identifying top cyber threats your business might face today.

Recognize the Threats and Challenges

Regarding cybersecurity, it’s important to recognize key threats and challenges. Being aware of these things will improve your security approach and practices. Let’s explore them in more detail.

Key challenges

Regulatory compliance. There’s much to consider regarding data – determining where it comes from, specifying its uses, and handling it to specific regulations. Investing sufficiently in data privacy is beneficial for your clients and essential for safeguarding your business finances against government sanctions. For example, in 2021, Amazon disclosed a penalty of $877M for breaching the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Full awareness. Constant vigilance is not easy but crucial for your enterprise’s data security experts, software engineers, and tech teams. Continuous monitoring, new technology decisions, or previous attack assessments must undergo thorough security assessments regularly.
Supply chain risks. Many enterprises rely on third-party vendors and suppliers for various services and components. A compromise in the supply chain can have cascading effects on your organization’s security. Assessing and managing the cybersecurity risks associated with third-party relationships is important.
Limited resources. Many organizations face resource constraints, including budget and skilled cybersecurity personnel shortages. Prioritizing security initiatives and investing in the right technologies and training will maximize your cybersecurity efforts.

Top cyber threats

Cloud security. As more businesses move data and services to the cloud, security threats targeting cloud environments, such as misconfigured settings and unauthorized access, become more significant.
Business email compromise. BEC attacks involve compromising business email accounts to conduct fraudulent activities, such as tricking employees into transferring funds.
Phishing attacks. Attackers use deceptive emails, messages, or websites to trick employees into revealing sensitive information, such as login credentials.
Ransomware. These attacks involve encrypting a company’s data and demanding payment for its release. They can be highly disruptive and financially damaging.
Advanced persistent threats. APTs are sophisticated, long-term attacks often orchestrated by well-funded and organized groups. They aim to steal sensitive information or disrupt operations.
Malware. Various forms of malicious software (malware) continue to pose a threat, as 560K of malware are detected daily. This includes viruses, worms, trojans, and other types of malicious code.

7 Data Security Best Practices

While it’s commonly known that large businesses are prime targets for cybercriminals, smaller organizations are also increasingly vulnerable. This vulnerability originates from the perception that smaller businesses may not have substantial assets to steal, leading them to adopt fewer security measures and easily exploitable data protection strategies.

The truth is that cyber attackers actively seek to amass consumer information with the explicit goal of exploiting both organizations and individuals for financial gain, no matter the size. Therefore, it’s time to adhere to the best security practices. Let’s explore them!

1. Data identification and classification

How can you protect something you don’t know exists? The first step is crucial – understanding what type of data exists and flows within your enterprise. Data circulates across a distributed network encompassing data centers, network-attached storage, desktops, mobile and remote users, cloud servers, and applications.

Your security team should understand the data lifecycle, including its creation, utilization, storage, and disposal. Once identified, every data type, from routine to sensitive information, should be meticulously cataloged. Ignoring this increases the risk of leaving certain data unprotected and susceptible to vulnerabilities.

2. Access control to sensitive data

Not all company employees require identical access to information. Granting widespread access to sensitive data increases the risk of internal breaches, theft, or loss. Grant privileges only as necessary for their intended tasks – this ensures that users have the right level of access to data.

To control access more easily, you can lean on these main permission types:

Full control. Enables the user to take complete ownership of the data, including storing, accessing, modifying, deleting, assigning permissions, and more.
Modify. Allows the user to access, modify, and delete data.
Access. Permits the user to access data without modifying or deleting it.
Access and modify. Authorizes the user to access and modify data but not delete it.

3. Proxies

Using proxies is a common practice for enhancing data security in an enterprise environment. Proxies act as intermediaries between a user’s device and the internet, helping to protect the organization’s network and data.

Here are some specific ways proxies can help with data security:

Anonymizing traffic. Rotating proxies are especially good at anonymizing internet traffic. The unique advantage of these proxies lies in their ability to change your IP with each outgoing request, making it complicated for potential attackers to track or decipher your online activity.
Web filtering and content control. Use a web proxy to filter and control the content that employees can access on the internet. This helps prevent access to malicious websites and inappropriate content that could pose a security risk.
Access control and authentication. Restrict access to certain websites or applications based on user roles and permissions to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data.
Secure remote access. Set up proxies to facilitate secure remote access to internal resources. This can be achieved through proxies that support secure protocols.

4. Data masking

Data masking, or anonymization, is a technique used to protect sensitive information by replacing, encrypting, or scrambling original data with fake or pseudonymous data. The goal of data masking is to maintain the usability and functionality of the data for testing or analytical purposes while ensuring that sensitive information is not exposed to unauthorized individuals.

This security method is commonly applied when organizations need to share or use sensitive data for non-production purposes, such as software testing, development, or data analysis. Examples include personally identifiable information (PII), financial data, healthcare records, and other confidential information.

There are different data masking methods, including:

Substitution. This method replaces sensitive data with realistic-looking fake data. For example, a real name might be replaced with a randomly generated name with a similar format.
Shuffling. The order of data records is shuffled, so the association between records and individuals is broken while still maintaining statistical characteristics.
Encryption. Sensitive data is encrypted using strong encryption algorithms, and only authorized users with the decryption keys can access the original information.
Randomization. Random values are generated to replace sensitive data, ensuring that the masked data bears no relation to the original data.

5. Physical protection

Even the most advanced enterprises frequently neglect the importance of physical security. Begin by securing your workstations when they are not in use to prevent the physical removal of devices from your premises. This measure will protect the hard drives and other sensitive components housing your data.

Implementing a BIOS password is another effective data security practice to stop cyber criminals from unauthorized access to your operating systems. Additionally, it’s crucial to pay attention to the security of devices such as USB flash drives, Bluetooth devices, smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

6. Endpoint security software and systems

The continual vulnerability of your network’s endpoints emphasizes the need for a resilient endpoint security infrastructure to minimize the risk of potential data breaches.

Begin by incorporating the following tools into your cybersecurity arsenal:

Antivirus protection. Ensure the installation of antivirus software on all servers and workstations. Regular scans should be conducted to uphold the system’s health and detect infections such as ransomware.
Antispyware measures. Spyware often infiltrates without user awareness. Counteract this threat by employing anti-spyware and anti-adware tools to remove or block these intrusive programs.
Pop-up blockers. Unwanted pop-ups can compromise system integrity without a clear cause. Pop-up blockers can help maintain a secure environment.
Firewalls. Establishing firewalls creates a protective barrier against cybercriminals, constituting a fundamental data security best practice. Consider implementing internal firewalls for an added layer of defense.

7. Data encryption

Encryption transforms your data into an unusable state unless decrypted with the corresponding key. This security measure applies to data both at rest, such as when stored on disk or in the cloud, and transit, during transfer over a network connection. Information transmitted without encryption over the internet becomes readable to all intermediaries, including potential spyware on the infrastructure.

Attackers may exploit vulnerabilities to infiltrate internal systems and steal stored data. Encryption is a safeguard – stolen or intercepted encrypted data remains unusable without the accompanying key. However, the drawback lies in the potential loss of encryption keys. These keys must be securely stored because their loss means losing access to the protected data. Hardware and software key management solutions should be deployed to reduce this risk.

Conclusion

In the face of increasing cyber threats, your enterprise must adopt a proactive stance, continually updating and reinforcing cybersecurity protocols. The key lies not only in technological solutions but also in fostering a culture of awareness and vigilance among your employees.

As the digital landscape evolves, so must the strategies and practices. We advise you to keep reading cybersecurity news and staying fresh on new threats. Stay safe!