Thursday 14 April 2016

possible way's that you can do to protect your information from security thieves

Some information are as valuable as currency, especially those from high-net worth businesses and individuals. Information security is necessary to avoid any unauthorized access to these records and prevent its misuse. But how does one repel thieves from storming the virtual beehive and stealing all the honey?

Causes of Information Breach:One common cause of security failure is unintended disclosure. A business employee or an associate of the organization may inadvertently post personal or sensitive company- or customer-related data on a website, email, or snail mail.

Another more serious concern is the prevalence of hacking software or malware. Unauthorized personnel can gain access to a network of computers or servers that are inadequately protected by out-of-date firewall or weak password strings.

Lost hardware may also raise security concerns. Mobile devices, laptops, or flash drives that contain sensitive business information have relatively bad security protocols that can be easily breached by an experienced hacker.

Data Encryption
Encrypting is one of the simplest yet most effective means of protecting sensitive data. According to experts, encryption becomes even more vital today as more data are carried via mobile devices and USB drives, which are easy to steal or misplace.

Rather than deploy individual data protection software for desktop computers, laptops, flash drives, front-end and back-end servers, and different networks, experts suggest using a software package that enables a business to encrypt and manage all their data.

Credit Card Processing
Merchants who receive or transmit credit card data and other sensitive financial information should use a Secure Socket Layer or SSL connection. SSL safeguards sensitive information as it passes through the world wide web.

Workforce Threats

Security threats may also come from the inside of a business. Bad employees may unintentionally distribute business data through their emails and letters. Other employees may be gathering intel and selling it to your competitors. Do thorough background checks and request at least two references for each new employee.

Another security threat that the workforce faces is actual physical theft. If you have data that is important enough you may want to keep your data centers under surveillance. This does not have to be expensive, services such as Pro-Vigil specialize in these areas and rely on cameras to keep costs low.

Data Organization

Identify all sensitive files and records you have, what you use it for, and where it resides. Do an inventory of your company’s potentially sensitive data and document where they are stored. It is good practice to isolate sensitive information within the fewest number of computers or databases. The fewer file copies you have, the easier it is to manage and protect.

Disposing Unnecessary Data
Safely disposing data can cost money, yet is important if you do not want the hardware to land in the wrong hands after decommissioning it. A cost-efficient and faster alternative to traditional full-out destruction of hard drives is by opting for self-encrypting hard drives (SEDs). Data centers can repurpose the drive and it takes only a few seconds to erase data, regardless of the amount. This is significantly better than the several hours you have to wait for data centers to grind up regular hard drive into particles.

The cost of self-encrypting hard drives are relatively cheap, with the 160GB drive costing around $70. And because data centers can repurpose it, you can reuse it to store new files and records.

Warning: While Self-encrypting drives equipped with modern technologies provide excellent security without performance issues, the devices can lose data due to physical or logical issue 

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