Even small businesses expect to one day grow up. That’s why so many startups take steps to protect their data even before they grow up. The potential upside of protecting your data as a startup is huge. You have little risk and a lot to gain by making wise choices now that will help you avoid major losses later. Even the smallest businesses can have massive impacts with just the right amount of foresight and planning. Protecting your data as a startup doesn’t require an enormous budget or team of consultants, but it does require some thoughtful decisions, especially when it comes to technology and security policies.
What Is the Best Practice for Data Protection?
The first and most obvious best practice for data protection is to have an effective backup solution. It’s so basic it’s almost silly to say it out loud. But, what’s not silly are the statistics that show many businesses have no effective backup plans. One survey found that 43% of companies don’t perform any backups at all. Another 43% perform one type of backup, but rarely recover any of their data from it. And, the final 14% use two or more types of backups, but don’t know how to effectively use all of them together. While it is natural for businesses to focus on growing their sales and expanding their team, it is important to keep data protection on the to-do list as well.
Build a Firewall Around Your Core Data
Data breaches result in over $3 billion in losses per year. In the first half of 2018 alone, over 3 billion records have been compromised through malicious attacks on businesses. It’s no surprise that the number one attack vector is the firewall. Most attacks are through the firewall and more often than not, they are successful. To ensure your firewall is as effective as possible, consider investing in a state-of-the-art firewall appliance. That will ensure your data is as safe as possible and that your firewall is properly configured with the latest security settings. Most importantly, it will ensure that any data breaches are stopped as early as possible. Once the firewall is in place, you should then be sure to follow security best practices for employees. This includes encouraging strong passwords, not clicking on suspicious links, and never plugging in a USB stick from an unknown source. Data security is only as good as the weakest link in the chain.
Regularly Back Up Your Data
We’ve discussed this above, but it’s worth saying again. Regularly back up your data. In fact, it would be best practice to do so continually, rather than simply at regular intervals. Not only can you protect yourself from data loss or exposure due to human error (like plugging in a USB stick with malware or misconfiguration), but you can also be protected from cyber threats like ransomware. More and more, ransomware is targeting businesses. In fact, ransomware attacks against businesses have increased by more than 400% since 2016. A good way to protect yourself is to keep regular backups of your data that are kept offsite. That way, even if your data is encrypted by ransomware, you can still get your data back.
Protect the Confidentiality of Your Data
It’s not only hackers who might be trying to steal your secret sauce. Employees also need to be monitored carefully to ensure the confidentiality of their data. The best practice for protecting the confidentiality of your data is to use data classification tools. By classifying your data, you can then implement the appropriate security policies to protect that data. For example, you may decide that trade secrets or product development data need to be protected at the “Hazardous” level. You can then use that classification to implement specific security policies to protect that data from being removed from your network, sent over email, or even copied to a USB stick.
Lock Down Any Sensitive Information
While you’re classifying your data, you should also lock down any sensitive data. This includes anything related to customers, employees, or finances. For example, you may decide that your customer data needs to be protected at the “High” level. Once you decide that, you can then use that classification to implement specific policies like requiring two-factor authentication for anyone trying to access that data from anywhere. When you classify and then lock down sensitive data, you can greatly reduce the risk of a data breach. That’s because you can then be sure that only authorized individuals can view or otherwise interact with that data.
Don’t Forget the Cloud
The cloud is an incredibly powerful tool for data protection. In fact, the cloud can help you protect your data in a variety of ways. The first is by providing secure hosting services. This can include things like secure remote access to your data or even an on-premises data centre. The second is through encryption. Many cloud providers offer encryption solutions. These are built into their services and can help you protect data at rest, in transit, and when it is being used by employees. Important Note: Not all encryption is created equally. Be sure to choose a solution that has proven its effectiveness against real-world hackers. Another way the cloud can help protect your data is through disaster recovery solutions. This means that if your data centre goes down, you don’t lose access to your data. This is because your cloud service provider will have a failover or disaster recovery solution in place.
Conclusion
Data is the lifeblood of every modern business. And, even though the GDPR was enacted back in May 2018, it is still critical to protect that data from cyber threats. The best practices for protecting data haven’t changed in years. The most effective way to protect data is to implement a security strategy that includes data classification, encryption, and regular backups. To protect your data as a startup, it is important to invest in the right technologies and make careful decisions about how you use them. It is crucial to think ahead when it comes to data protection. That’s because it can be difficult to scale up a data protection strategy once your company begins to grow.
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