Where is your company’s important data stored and how does it flow through your day-to-day operations? This issue remains debated, as the data simultaneously flows through multiple channels, many of which are unofficial, despite the company’s efforts to limit this aspect. Email, cloud storage, instant messaging, USB devices, printers or even AI chatbots, if employees do not carefully manage business data, it can be easily compromised.

Next, we’ll identify the key risks associated with a data breach, list the risk vectors, and outline mitigation strategies to highlight how a data loss prevention (DLP) solution can help you stay in control.

What business information should companies carefully protect?

● Financial and strategic data of the company

● Information collected from customers, partners and employees

● Warehouse, inventory and personnel data

● Source codes of developed programs, plans and projects

I. POWER RISKS

The risks associated with data flow become apparent when many employees or entire teams have access to this data at different stages of the business flow. They may change the data, provide it to other companies, or delete it by mistake or on purpose. Information can be leaked at any time, and every step of the data flow is a potential security risk.

In addition to the risks mentioned above, there are also risks associated with the digitization of data, a process that most companies have gone through or are still going through. Data, now digitized, can be found and transmitted through several channels, most of which are informal and some of which are completely unsuitable for transmitting important company data:

● Exchange, social networks and messaging sites (WeTransfer, Whatsapp, FB Messenger, Teams, etc.)

● Popular cloud storage (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, SharePoint)

● Through e-mail and the Internet using all popular protocols

● Via Microsoft 365 (Exchange or SharePoint Online)

● Mobile memory (USB memory cards or external SSD)

● Various operations (Copy-Paste, drag, screenshot)

Therefore, data is exposed to certain risks on a daily basis, as discussed below.

Careless behavior of employees

The evolution of digital workspaces, hybrid and remote work is contributing to the constant growth of insider threats, along with new approaches such as BYOD, which allows the use of personal devices for professional activities. Employees face fatigue, work under stress and may not always be aware of security processes and the importance of data protection.

In the last two years alone, the total number of incidents has increased by 44%, most of which were unintentional – for example, 56% were caused by internal negligence, while 26% were malicious.

Data in the hands of competition

Data has significant value for companies and can be easily monetized; there are also organizations specializing in obtaining data. Thus, employees may be motivated to steal company data and sell it to third parties or competitors or use it in a new job.

Regardless of intent, data loss ultimately has equally dire consequences for a company.

II. IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES

Damage to the company’s reputation

A company’s reputation is vulnerable during a data breach. The negative impact caused by an incident of this magnitude can significantly reduce the number of customers and, as a result, profits, and even lead to bankruptcy.

According to the US National Cyber ​​Security Alliance, approximately 60% of small businesses go out of business within six months of a major data breach, and 85% of businesses experience a data breach. Data breaches caused by insiders can be catastrophic.

Violation of certain regulations (e.g. GDPR)

In case of breach of data security, the authorities impose significant fines. The most famous, but far from the only regulatory act is the GDPR. Companies that violate GDPR requirements can expect extremely high fines (up to 2% or 4% of the company’s annual revenue worldwide).

III. STRATEGIES AND SOLUTIONS

Regardless of the number of channels your company’s data travels through, there are some common ways to protect your data.

• Implement an audit process to identify and protect critical data. It is important to know where information vital to the company’s operations is stored and to regulate access to it.
• Develop a comprehensive policy for processing confidential data, specifying who is allowed access and for what purposes. This policy should be easily accessible and understandable to all employees.
• Provide ongoing employee training on the importance of data security and implement periodic awareness campaigns to maintain vigilance regarding data processing.
• Make sure all data is encrypted for an extra layer of protection. If an employee’s device is lost, encryption ensures that data remains unreadable and secure.

A data loss prevention solution can automatically help you:

● block uploading of data to file-sharing sites or unofficial channels outside the company and automatically warn employees about risky operations.

● limit the sending of critical data to unknown external email addresses and automatically notify employees of potential data security breaches.

● check what type of documents employees are printing based on contextual information and even restrict the printing of certain sensitive documents.

Since data is perhaps the most important asset of a company, it must be protected proactively.

Implementing a data loss prevention (DLP) software solution not only protects critical company data from internal threats or loss, but also has a significant impact on your organization’s outlook, including business continuity, reputation and know-how management. This solution is central to data-driven decision making, helps prevent or manage data incidents effectively, and helps educate employees on the importance of treating data as a vital business asset.

Safetica Data Loss Prevention solutions provide a wide range of features to protect your company’s data.

1. Traces the flow of data

Safetica provides features to monitor and secure the various channels or data streams your company uses, and can alert users to risky behavior and block unsafe file sharing activities.

2. Ensure regulatory compliance

With Safetica, you can set specific rules to ensure you comply with GDPR or other data protection regulations. You have the opportunity to monitor the activities of employees regarding the processing of personal data and other confidential information. Safetica empowers you to manage the risk of misuse or accidental policy violations with real-time alerts that notify you of potential security breaches.

3. Encrypts data

Safetica gives you the ability to manage your USB device and drive encryption with BitLocker.

4. Protects data from internal threats

With Safetica, user behavior is monitored and you will receive notifications when anomalies are detected. If a user starts transferring large amounts of data during non-working hours or suddenly interacts with different types of data, there is a risk and the system will alert you so that you can take appropriate action.

Safetica NXT test – the solution Data loss prevention strong and easy to manage

Safetica NXT is a state-of-the-art data security solution designed to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access by detecting security risks at the workstation level and preventing incidents. This solution is a cloud-based DLP tool that is fast to deploy and compatible with Windows and macOS operating systems. With hundreds of built-in templates and easy automated setup, Safetica NXT is easy to use, providing an effective data protection solution.

To understand the value of Safetica NXT in the shortest possible time and get a super fast data security assessment, request a completely free trial version of Safetica NXT here: www.safetica.ro/

You will receive:

• an assessment of the actual volume of data leaving your company, information about the purpose of the data, the types of data and what confidential information is being leaked;
• you will be able to contact the first detection of risks – noteworthy events that may pose potential risks in the flow of data and user activity;
• guidelines for setting up Safetica NXT DLP and protecting your company’s processes

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