Knowingly and unknowingly, we use data in many different forms every day. From online banking transactions to things you download and share using your smartphone, it is all different forms of data. It is as if we are exchanging data all the time, even when we might not feel the need for it. Take your computers and phones as an example. Download the data as updates, patches, or software at times without you knowing.

The type of data we use varies drastically. It can be said that sharing and exchanging data is necessary, but isn’t it vulnerable? Think about it, can you monitor this much data and ensure that it is safe and not exposed to hackers or data thieves? Unlikely, which is why the need to invest in data security comes into play. Rest assured, investing in the data breach in Los Angeles will only be possible when you understand the type of data used. Smartphones may require a completely different set of tools and software to prevent data breach attempts than your workstations, servers, or data centers.

Procedure To Store, Collect, And Process Data

To better understand the entire procedure, we first need to know the type of data that is collected, transmitted, and processed. The keyword here is the transmission. As you send and receive the data, your data is at risk. Cybercriminals are always lurking around and are on the lookout for data transmitted without adequate security. The level of security that your data requires may also be debatable, but that depends on the type of data you may be sending. For instance, banking transactions are not considered vulnerable as they are encrypted. The same goes for other forms of adequately protected data before being transmitted.

Types Of Data

Data that is transmittable can be categorized in the following two categories:

• Non-Public Personal Information (NPI)
• Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

NPI

Non-public personal information is considered more prone to cyber attacks as this type of information is popular and sells at a good price on the dark web. Hackers often find it easy to get their hands on this type of information. Although there is no guarantee that PII is safer, NPI is relatively vulnerable as it is inadequately protected. NPI includes the following:

• Social security number
• Name
• Driver license
• Court records
• Deposit or loan history
• Payment history
• Account numbers
• Address
• Income

PII

You will often find that the PII and NPI are interchangeable, but there are some differences. The following information falls under this category:

• Your Geolocation
• Video, audio, thermal, visual, or olfactory data
• Employment data
• Educational data
• Purchase history
• Account name

Non-public personal property record

Email address

A large portion of the information an organization collects falls under one or both of these categories. The fact that this data requires adequate protection should make users realize the importance of investing in versatile, adequate data protection solutions. Your data must be at least disaggregated.

Areas And Permissions To Store And Transmit Data

There have been arguments on the level of security you can attain for the data you are not aware of. Simply put, you cannot protect the data you don’t know about. The strategy should first identify the type of data you may have stored on your systems. The process can be time-consuming, so using an asset detection technology is the preferred option here. The technology may help you locate the exact location of the data through a catalog:

• Social media
• Networks
• Applications
• Hosts
• Workloads
• Agents
• Files
• Downloadable forms of corporate websites

The growth of your user’s digital footprint raises the possibility that the data may be stored at various locations, some of which you may not be aware of. This can confuse the user, increasing the risk of a data breach. Unexplored locations where the data may be stored require continuous monitoring of assets and data.

Stamping Sensitive Data Locations

Tapping into user identity is difficult for companies for a variety of reasons. First of all, checking the user data of every individual is difficult as there are multiple identities involved. Building the data for breach prevention becomes possible once you consider the following:

• Privileged users
• Standard users
• APIs
• Robotic processing automation (Bots or RPAs)
• Certificates (SSL/ TLS)
• SSH keys
• Containers

Interestingly, the list contains both human as well as machine identities. Though versatile and useful, the entire ecosystem can be vulnerable due to certain risks that may come through data breach attempts.

Deploying Checks And Controls

Mitigating the risk should be your foremost priority. This may prove handy in the long run as it will keep your systems and data in check. To achieve that, you have to establish a set of controls that will show your understanding of the potential threat by cybercriminals and data thieves. Remember, these entities may constantly attempt to breach your security using various means. You should employ tools that will ensure the safety of your data:

• Firewall
• Security patch updates
• Antivirus and malware solutions
• Spyware tools
• Revamping access management

Remember that these are just some of the solutions you might need for excellent data protection.

Coin Your Preferred Data Policy

Like any professional business entity, you should pave the way for a written cybersecurity policy in hand in the written form. This document will serve as the benchmark that you can use for reference in the future. Though it is up to you to decide what points to include in the policy, it is best to identify the following before writing the policy:

• Responsibilities – this should help you identify the resources upon which you can allocate various policies
• Centered goals – should help you set the goals that you need to achieve through the policy
• Scope of the policy – the type of data, solutions, networks, and systems to include
• Objectives – this will list the objectives that your policy will help fulfill

Monitoring Of Systems

Constantly monitoring your network and data is one of the first things to achieve. The truth is, there is no other better way to keep your systems and data in check. With constant monitoring, you can ensure the safety of your precious data to a good extent. There may be threats out there that might still threaten your data, but consistent monitoring reduces the chances of penetration to a good extent.

This requires checking possibilities of weak login, which results from not changing your login credentials for a long time. As a privileged user, you must ensure the change of credentials of every system included in your network. Negligence may result in compromising your system’s safety.

Data Governance

A relatively new way to ensure the security of your data is by frequently using the practice of data governance. To make the most of this concept, you first need to have a proper data policy in place. The policy will include the process for better data protection. Consider adding the following in your data policy:

• Quality
• Usage
• Privacy
• Security
• Access

Make sure that you properly assess the parties that may be responsible for enforcing the above.

Vendor Risk Management

Keeping the versatility of today’s policy in view, it makes sense to ensure that arrangement of a hyper connected ecosystem. This will help your business greatly as you can then include third and fourth party vendors into the game. Having these entities may help you formulate a business strategy that may be dynamic and digital. However, it will bring some additional risks as well as you might not be aware of the downsides of this strategy just yet. There is a way out of this as you can protect your data from breaching by coining a vendor risk management policy. The policy, once developed and verified, should help you mitigate the following:

• Legal
• Financial
• Cybersecurity
• Reputation
• Compliance

You can also measure the overall compliance of each of the above against the policy you are working on. This will require you to include some clauses in your service level agreements:

• The reputation of the IP service
• The health of existing DNS
• Cadence patching
• Security of endpoints

Employee training and awareness of security concepts

These are best utilized when combined with various task specific key performance indicators. Usage of KPIs provides you precise feedback for various parameters from time to time.

The Verdict

Whether small or big your business may be, utilizing a data protection strategy is a must. Even more important is to carve out a versatile data protection strategy that can help prevent all notable threats that may be looming online these days. We are now surrounded by threats that are using A. I and are growing in versatility. Though conventional technologies may remain handy for some time, we inevitably need to switch to data breach prevention solutions that are smarter dynamic. Start exploring your options for the best prevention for a data breach in Los Angeles and nearby.