In the last decade, data breaches have become both more damaging and more frequent, especially where humans are connected through technology more than ever. As long as you have an online database or website that collects user information, you are vulnerable to data breaches. The dangers of these breaches can be dreadful in more ways than one, which is why it’s important to protect user data and your business. Here are the 8 best practices to take to protect user data.
- Use a firewall and VPN
Putting up a firewall and VPN may be the easiest way to protect user data. Firewalls prevent malicious attacks by allowing you to set your security preferences, while VPNs can only protect data from where the network connection was created or in the VPN tunnel. Essentially, it helps to protect your internal network from external access. It does not, however, protect your computer.
- Have an elaborate password for added protection
Using a password manager to generate different, complex passwords for every account and enable two-factor authentication is highly underrated. Being prompted when someone has logged into your account could save you time, money, and effort. As an added precaution, we believe passwords should be changed every few months.
- Backup data frequently
By making backups, you can easily get to the files and information you’ve saved, and doing this often can protect you from ransomware attacks in case you lose data. Having a secure archive of your important information will also help save time when you need to retrieve important information.
- Perform third party security audits
Security audits minimize the chances of cybersecurity breaches and attacks. There are two types of audits: internal and external. While you should perform your own internal audits, you can engage ATET Security, a leading business in data protection, to execute third-party audits and tie up your company’s loose ends.
- Empower employees
As there are many ways to prevent and protect user data, it is also important that all employees are educated and practice cybersecurity awareness. Employees should know how to detect and recover from external cyber threats such as viruses, scam links, phishing, password breaches, or social engineering attacks. Hence, educating your employees can help to protect against a breach of user data protection.
- Manage Employee Permission
Employee permissions can be tricky. The more people you grant access to, the greater the number of gaps in security you create. And those gaps can become the gateway hackers are seeking. As a result, be cautious when sharing sensitive data and limit access to information and resources that are strictly necessary for employee roles.
- Encrypt data, always
Encryption is a common way to protect files and consumer data. Currently, all cloud storage data offers encryption, and you should ensure that it is always turned on. Encryption will prevent hackers from obtaining sensitive information, thereby reducing the exposure of user data breaches.
- Hire an expert
A data breach can be detrimental to any online business, and hackers are only getting bolder and more aggressive. Hiring a cybersecurity expert not only takes the stress out of possible attacks but also protects your company from data breaches in a very thorough way. We offer penetration testing and security assessments through ATET Security to find any holes in a company’s security system. This greatly improves your data protection.
Get in touch with us to understand more about what we can do for you and your business.