How to Ensure Data Security for Your Business in 2017?

2016 was the worst year for cybersecurity with millions of data breaches incidents across the world. The biggest cybersecurity threats will be more challenging and sophisticated in 2017. How will your business deal with such threats? Don’t worry! Here are simple yet easy data security tips you must deploy to spend the year without any incident of data breaching.

Did you know? Over 554,454,940 data breaches happened in 2016 worldwide, according to a report by Breachlevelindex.com. Further, the report cites that over 1 million records were affected with these breaching incidents. And it is worth mentioning here that small businesses were on the radar of hackers than their large counterparts. Symantec’s Internet Security Theft Report found that 62% of the data theft victims are small and medium sized business.

So, 2016 hasn’t been a great year for businesses in terms of data security. And 2017 can be even worse with the ever increasing cybercrime rate and the expertise of criminals to invade every type of data. Data breaches not only cause financial losses to businesses but also influence their reputation.

Therefore, you must prepare ahead of time to protect your business from data thefts.

Here are the things you must do to ensure your data security in 2017.

Create a Strong Password System:

Creating a strong password may sound a basic thing, but it makes a difference. If you still use easy password phrases like 1234 or ABCD, these startling statistics are for you…

• 2 out of every 5 people using simple passwords experience password stolen and hacking.
• 12345, ABCD, WELCOME, Dragon are the most hacked passwords
• 63% of security incidents were due to the use of weak passwords.

Therefore, you should make your password strong with characters and numerals. Beyond that, the two step password authentication adds an extra layer of security based on retina scanning, face recognition and fingerprint scanning.

Secure Data Backups:

Data backups are the important part of data storage, but they have their share in data woes. In fact, a significant percentage of security breaches are due to the mismanagement and mishandling of data backups.

Setting a guidelines regarding service account usage is a crucial part of securing data backups. This is because service account allows access to the same data that’s being in your backup. You can use local system account or dedicated service account while creating your backup service profile.

To reduce the risk of data loss during account hacking, your business admin should set up separate accounts for daily use, specific employees and essential backups.

Prevent Employee Data Theft:

According to Heimdal Security, 59% of employees steal corporate data when they switch or are fired. But that doesn’t mean business’s data is safe with the in-house resources as they were behind in 60% data incidents in 2016. A malicious resource can modify or steal the information and pass on the trade secrets to rival company for the person gain. An internal threat can be your worst enemy as he is inside your network.

To deal with such threats, there is a need to create a positive work environment to promote employment practices, organization structure, and positive employee recognition. Besides, you should screen and perform a background check on a person before hiring him or her. Make sure your video surveillance system covers each corner of your workplace. Restrict the access to authorized personals only and be clear about device polices.

 Incorporate Digital Rights Management Tools Into Your System:

Digital Rights Management or DRM helps you prevent the illegal distribution of your data. It embeds certain codes that specify the file’s regulation of use to prevent the data from any misuse by end users. In this way, these tools are useful in manual and software monitoring of the unauthorized data usage.

So, these are the strategies you must apply to protect your business’ data in 2017 when cybercrimes are expected to be more vicious.

About The Guest Blogger 

A Singapore based IT support & consultancy company, Apixel IT Services, has been in operational for well over 10 years. Apixel provides managed IT support services to MNCs, SMEs, as well as government/non-profit institution in Singapore. Their area of expertise includes on-premise server infrastructure setup and configuration, cloud solutions, network security management and data security/theft prevention. The company also provides consultancy and integration services to corporations seeking turn-key IT solutions.