Data Security Systems

With so much of our lives being lived and business being conducted online, data security becomes more important each day. Whether it be business or personal, a data breach can have potentially catastrophic consequences.

There are many reasons to protect business and personal data. Businesses are legally and ethically obligated to protect their client’s and employees’ sensitive information. There is also the requisite task of protecting a business’s proprietary data. Trade secrets becoming public can be disastrous for a business.

Personal and business data is bought and sold every day. All it takes is one misstep to have your sensitive financial, medical or business information on the auction block, ready to be sold to the highest bidder.

With all of this in mind, doesn’t it make the most sense to do everything you can to keep your private information safe?

What Do We Mean by Data Security?

Data security is the initiative taken to safeguard digital information against unauthorized access, theft and corruption. It is a multifaceted strategy that incorporates tools like encryption, redaction and data masking.

Data security is different from data privacy in that data security takes bold, defensive measures against malicious attacks. Data privacy is more passive. It has more to do with “best practices” than anything else. For example, limiting who has access to sensitive information falls under the purview of data privacy.

Having a well-thought-out data security system in place gives you peace of mind and strengthens clients’ trust in your business. It defends against threats from outside and within your organization.

Just like how it is important to have video surveillance at a physical location, it’s equally as important to be protected online.

Types of Data Security

For every new cyber threat that pops up, a new way to protect yourself against it emerges. Let’s take a look at what is available to thwart data breaches:

Data encryption
Data erasure
Data masking
Data resiliency

Data Encryption

This is simply the process of encoding information. It converts data from its original form to a form that is — hopefully — only decipherable by the intended recipient.

With something like an encrypted email, the original document is encrypted, sent, and then unscrambled automatically once it reaches its destination. In the event that an email is intercepted, if it was a successful encryption, it should be indecipherable to the interceptor.

Encryption has been used for thousands of years. But instead of using complex mechanical devices to generate codes as they did many years ago, computers use sophisticated algorithms to encrypt our digital data.

Data Erasure

This process is exactly what it sounds like. By using ones and zeros to overwrite existing data that resides on hard drives or other media, data erasure renders the information on those media irrecoverable.

Data erasure is not to be confused with data deletion. Data deletion leaves information in a state where it is recoverable. Simply hitting the “delete” key and thinking that data erasure has occurred can leave sensitive information vulnerable to hackers. Data erasure is the safest way to go. After all, it’s impossible to steal data that no longer exists.

Data Masking

This process and data encryption are similar in that they share the goal of protecting data. However, they go about their missions in slightly different ways.

Data encryption scrambles the entire piece of data, making it unreadable without a key. Data masking alters parts of the data while leaving no links to the original, whole piece of data. Think credit card numbers: XXXX XXXX XXXX 9142.

Masking key parts of information make data masking perfect for dealing with sensitive information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, or medical information like patient I.D. numbers.

Data Resiliency

This pertains to how quickly a system can get back up and running after an attack or user error. Corrupt and or deleted files need to be restored so that the company can get back to business. Having a strong data resiliency program will save countless hours of labor and will keep lost revenue to a minimum.

A data resiliency program will have multiple, encrypted copies of all of your company's important information. Data resilience platforms are capable of processing billions of data points, across many different environments. This helps to determine the best course of action when, for example, the system is hit with a ransomware attack.

Having a robust data security system in place is crucial for any business, large or small. Taylored Systems partners with all major data security systems providers to make sure all of our customer’s bases are covered.

A strong data security system will implement all of the above security measures to ensure your sensitive data is secure. Think of data security as building a digital fortress to protect your valuable information.

Data Security Solutions

Utilizing encryption, masking, authentication, resiliency programs, AI and cloud-based security protocols might seem like overkill to some, but it’s best to not leave things to chance.

Taylored Systems has a top-tier track record when it comes to IT management, and data security in the Indianapolis area.