Data Protection – Where To Start

Data protection is vital. Simply put, data is the lifeblood of any modern business. This information keeps a company ticking over from day to day, and is worth protecting. From legal and financial records to customer data, it constitutes a critical resource of a company’s business. Leaked or compromised in some way, it could potentially ruin a company, both financially and in terms of reputation. For anyone tasked with keeping this information safe, protection of data is essential. But going about picking the right data protection company can be tricky if you know little about IT. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to help you make the right choice.

What Is Data Classification?

Data classification is the first step in securing any data. For a good business solutions company, this will be the most essential and primary task in protecting your information assets. In fact, few other security measures can be enacted without first classifying the data with which your company deals. Understanding anything is the first step to safeguarding it, and data is no different. You need to know what types of data you have; what levels of regulatory compliance apply; and at what security level each piece should be classified. A whole range of data classification tools exist to help your business solutions company do this, but at some level, you should also be involved in the process. After all, it is fundamentally a question of how sensitive you as a business consider this or that data to be. Seeking to better understand your data should be an ongoing and continually improving process. The more you sort and classify your data, the more secure you can make your sensitive information. Moreover, the more you classify your data, the easier data retrieval becomes. Standardising identity access and security precautions across degrees of importance means that you significantly lower the exposure of your most sensitive data assets, while ergonomically preserving low-risk information with data classification software.

Identity Access Management Is Key

Once you have decided the matters of what your data looks like and how your information assets should be divided, you need to think about identity access management. This is the natural step on from data classification. Having recognised and managed the data itself, you need to be able to say who has the right to use it. If data is the lifeblood of a company, then its workers are akin to white blood cells. In other words, employees need to be able to access data in order to do their jobs. But it doesn’t make sense for every employee to be privy to all of a company’s data. That is where classification comes in: deciding which information should be at what level of security. Once information has been classified as confidential, and you have decided who should have access to that, you need to put in place a system for the purpose of data protection. In the olden days, this system might have consisted of a physical security pass and a sign-in sheet, for example. Times have changed, and the profusion of cloud-based technologies and the range of apps and devices in use means that identity and access management tools can be harder to implement than ever.

Challenges Faced By Identity Access Management And Data Protection

One of the reasons why identity access management is a harder task now than ever before is that a forward-thinking company relies less on geography as a qualification for worker preference. Employees are likely to be accessing data from all over the country, if not the world. They are also doing so from a multitude of devices. It no longer makes sense to have a closed internal network system for anything but the most top secret of data. This means that IT departments, helped by business solutions companies, must figure out a way to allow flexible access on a secure basis. Furthermore, identity and access management services must contend with the frustration of forgotten passwords across a vast range of platforms. The only real viable identity access management solution is to find a business solutions company with the technological know-how to keep up. They need to be able to combine experience with forward thinking in the latest software developments. An additional problem is the vast quantities of data being dealt with nowadays, with data growing at a staggering 50% each year. IT departments need multiple servers to provide back-up copies of essential data, and need to maintain identical levels of security for each. Again, the only real solution is comprehensive integration of technology.

Some Data Classification And Protection Mistakes

Failures in data protection can be catastrophic, and yet they are all too common. One of the most regular mistakes of businesses seeking a quick fix in data protection is a lack of attention paid to data classification. Understanding which data poses a risk to your organisation is fundamentally important. Once you are in the know, you can layer protection on top of that segment of data. All too often a company will settle for blanket protection, a silver bullet, and hope for the best. But if you do not distinguish between data with file classification, you can guarantee that your most high risk assets are still vulnerable. Forgetting to educate your employees is the second biggest mistake in data protection and for data classification solutions. People and processes constitute up to two thirds of your data protection programme, so you must make sure that they are up to scratch. Technology is very important, but people must also be trained to know how to best use this technology. The most advanced software will fail your security measures if the operator is untrained or incompetent. Combined attention to both technology and people is what distinguishes the very best business solutions companies. One such company is HANDD Business Solutions.

Data Protection Excellence From HANDD Business Solutions

At HANDD Business Solutions, we are passionate about data protection. We have years of experience in data classification and identity access management, which we combine with a highly skilled force of experts. We realise that the latest breakthroughs in software are essential to data protection, but experience has told us that understanding both environment and people is just as important. If you would like to learn more about us and our services, please visit our website, at https://www.handd.co.uk/. To talk to someone in person, you can also phone on +44 (0)845 643 4063. Alternatively, if you would prefer to email, write to info@handd.co.uk, and we will reply as soon as we can.