Discover key strategies to safeguard your business against data loss. This guide covers essential practices from backups to employee training, ensuring comprehensive data protection
As business owner how do you feel about data loss? Does it make you nervous? For most of us the answer is an easy, 'Yes'. After all the company's data is the company. Data loss can be devastating, resulting in financial losses, damage to reputation, and even legal penalties.
We all recognize importance of data security so why does it keep happening? A study by the Ponemon Institute found that in 2019, only 29% of companies reported that their backups were fully recoverable. The study also found that 53% of companies had experienced data loss in the past year due to inadequate backups. Additionally, a study by Veeam found that in 2020, 55% of companies had experienced data loss due to poor backup practices. These studies suggest that despite recognizing the importance of data protection companies still fail when it comes to their approach in implanting sound backup strategies, and their resolve in maintaining these systems.
That's why it's essential to take steps to prevent data loss and keep the critical data of your business safe. In this blog post, we'll discuss some of the most effective ways to prevent data loss.
One of the most effective ways to prevent data loss is to regularly backup your data. This means creating copies of your important data and storing them in a secure location. By regularly backing up your data, you can ensure that you have a copy of your data that can be restored in the event of a disaster. Human error is key part in backup failure so use an automated process to run your backups.
Another important step in preventing data loss is to implement security measures such as encryption and access controls. Access controls like the Principle of Least Privilege will help prevent unauthorized access to your data by restricting access to specific individuals or groups. We may not always be able to prevent data theft but implementing encryption helps protect your data and backups from unauthorized access by making it unreadable to anyone without the encryption key. This is especially true if the employees are using company laptops in their work.
Having a disaster recovery plan in place is essential for preventing data loss. A disaster recovery plan should outline the steps you will take to restore your data in the event of a disaster. It should also include a schedule for regular backups and a list of all the data that needs to be protected. Remember that a disaster recovery process is useless if it is not tested. Taking the time to test can reveal unforeseen weaknesses in the process.
Your employees play a critical role in preventing data loss. According to a 2022 study by APWG "Ninety-five percent of the threats found in enterprise user inboxes in Q2 were either credential theft or response-based attacks". So it's essential to train employees on proper data protection and disaster recovery procedures. This way, they can help ensure that your data is safe and secure.
Regularly assessing the potential risks and vulnerabilities that could lead to data loss is an important step in preventing data loss. This includes identifying potential threats and determining the likelihood that they will occur. By regularly assessing risk, you can take steps to mitigate potential threats and protect your data. Using an outside provider to do a penetration test even on a one-time basis can help you see where in your infrastructure possible data breaches can occur. For extended analysis your provider or IT staff can install honeypots to lure potential bad actors into revealing their actions as they traverse the network.
Data loss isn't always due to bad actors. At times it is the result of hardware failure. Cloud backup services are becoming increasingly popular among businesses. They provide an added level of disaster recovery options, as your data is stored off-site and can be easily accessed from anywhere with an internet connection.
An award-winning community hospital in the Northeast experienced a ransomware incident in the middle of the night. A technician discovered unusual files titled “Sorry” after launching a VPN and accessing the workstation remotely.
These files triggered a message indicating a system compromise.Incident Detection and Initial ResponseUpon detection, the hospital's incident response plan was activated, alerting leadership and response teams.
The attack severely restricted operations, affecting electronic medical record systems, telephony, and other critical services. The hospital staff realized the extent of their dependency on the affected systems and the debilitating impact of such a widespread security incident.
The ransomware attack compromised 50% to 80% of system data, encrypting nearly every server and data on most workstations. The hospital's hosted EMR system was not directly compromised by ransomware, but access to it was disabled.
The ransomware defeated the hospital’s antivirus software and incapacitated the backup system, affecting confidential patient, business, and operations data. The attackers exploited remote access capabilities, a common feature for physicians, which presented additional security challenges. They lurked in the hospital’s systems for over 24 hours, planning their attack, and escalated their privileges once they found an administrator account.
This case study underscores the importance of comprehensive security measures, regular testing, and a proactive approach to cybersecurity in healthcare settings. Read the full case study here.
In conclusion, preventing company and client data from being lost is essential for any business, as it can result in significant financial losses, damage to reputation, and legal penalties. By regularly backing up your data, implementing security measures, having a disaster recovery plan in place, keeping your software and systems up-to-date, training your employees, regularly assessing risk, and using cloud backup services, you can keep your business safe and protect your data from loss.
