Protection Against a Data Breach and Protocols to Follow Once Affected

Securing data should be implemented in the beginning stages of every business model and continue throughout the life of the company.

A data breach can occur from leaked personal identifiable information (PII) to business insights announced on the company website.

Gaining Trust

Data breaches may involve financial information such as credit card or bank details, personal health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII), trade secrets of corporations or intellectual property.  Ensuring data protection early on can boost company sales and build consumer trust.

A business model with data protection and updated anti-virus software can help keep businesses secure from a data breach.  Each person involved within a business can be susceptible of having their (PHI/PII) leveraged for a price.  Cybercriminals will not hesitate to gain access to company data and try to extort confidential information.  Once this happens, it is extremely difficult to regain your consumer’s trust and loyalty. Here is a simple list to consider, when attempting to keep company data safe.

Ensuring that personal identifiable information (PII) is secure will gain a consumer’s trust for a lifetime.  By ensuring early integration of data protection a business can monitor and analyze its risks and vulnerabilities at every stage of development.

Consumer Privacy

Privacy by Design is a concept that integrates privacy at the beginning of the business plan and continues to be modified throughout the maturity of the business.

Dr. Ann Cavoukian, author of Privacy by Design: The 7 Foundational Principles, explains:

Privacy must become integral to organizational priorities, project objectives, design processes, and planning operations. Privacy must be embedded into every standard, protocol and process that touches our lives. Through embedding privacy into the design, the system will run better rather than trying to add it on later. Privacy must be integrated in a holistic and innovative way, making user experiences better. Implementing data protection needs to be a top priority that can coincide with function.

Transforming Infrastructure

The data breach surge is not technically new, it has been occurring for decades. Old infrastructure can and will ultimately affect a business, whether it is a network breach or little growth for the company.

In an article titled, Get the Network Out of My Way, by Christine Heckart, Contributor, Network World, Dec 13, 2016, explains a new shift for business infrastructure;

New IP architectures build security in from the ground up, are software-centric, are automated, and use data analytics and intelligence to adapt in machine time to changing conditions.  It’s this move to software-centricity and automation that allows a company to more quickly and affordably roll out new and enhanced services for their customers and users. Speeds and feeds are only a small part of the equation. What tips the scales is software and architecting the digital foundation of the business in a whole new way.

By implementing a digital infrastructure, a business can keep up with its successes and failures at a faster rate. For the full article, click here.

Data Breach Protocols

There are many contributing factors to a data breach:

• Employees can be at fault if they are not properly trained on how to secure a network, create extensive passwords and restrict access to under qualified workers.
• Cybercriminals are easily gaining access to operating systems with weak credentials.
• Past employees may still have access to accounts, if not properly discharged.

Many companies are now allowing BYOD (bring you own device) to continue running business operations.  While, this concept is convenient for workers on-site or teleworking, it can lead to devastating losses caused by a data breach.  Each company should provide training on how to keep account data safe, especially while working from an individual device.

Data breach protocols should be tailored to each business, large or small.  By having a Data Breach Response intact every business can be prepared if there happens to be a security breach.  By responding quickly after a breach, companies and consumers can try and protect their (PHI/PII) from falling into the wrong hands and possibly seek representation.

The Federal Trade Commission has created an in-depth protocol to follow if a data breach has occurred and can help your company bounce back from a data breach, potentially stopping it from happening in the future.