If your data is not reliably protected, it can lead to vulnerabilities that result in data breaches. And data breaches can cause sensitive data within your network to be compromised or corrupted.
Additionally, customer or patient data may end up in the hands of unauthorized users which can indirectly lead to lost customers and revenue.
Legal requirements that are placed on your industry may be compromised if a breach occurs which can also lead to legal ramifications. To avoid these consequences and improve data security, it may be a good idea to implement a data protection strategy.
Understanding the main components of a successful data protection strategy will help you understand what to incorporate into your strategy to keep data secure.
Coeo understands how important data security is and has helped thousands of organizations develop data protection strategies to improve their data security and avoid data breaches.
By the end of this article, you will understand what a data protection strategy is as well as the main components of a successful data protection strategy.
What is a data protection strategy?
A data protection strategy is a plan that outlines security measures and practices to secure sensitive information and to ensure its confidentiality and protect the data within your network.
However, one challenge with securing data is having security policies that are so strict that they restrict internal access to the data. This can hinder employees' ability to do their jobs efficiently when the information they are looking to access is restricted.
A data protection strategy ensures your data is secure while also making it available to all authorized users looking to access it.
Because of this, a well-developed plan catered to your organization that secures your data should be an essential part of your security priorities.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about data security or ask any questions you may have you can schedule an appointment.
The main components of a successful data protection strategy
A data protection strategy is beneficial for any organization looking to improve security over their data stored on their network.
However, if you do not understand the main components of a successful data protection strategy, you may not be able to design an effective strategy. These components include:
Data lifecycle management
One of the more important components of a data protection strategy is the management of the data lifecycle. It is important to manage and secure your data properly over the life cycle of the data.
This ensures that the data is secured for as long as you need the data and remains secure at all times.
Data lifecycle management is a fundamental component that should be regularly reviewed and optimized to ensure planned data protection actions are in sync with the life cycle of the data.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a solution that incorporates security processes and technologies to monitor and control sensitive data to prevent malicious actors from entering your network and stealing data.
DLP uses various software tools and data privacy practices to prevent unauthorized users from accessing data in your network.
DLP accomplishes this by identifying different data content types and applying automated security policies based on the sensitivity of that content. This ensures that sensitive data is hidden from unauthorized users and protected by a firewall.
DLP helps secure data in the network based on classifications no matter where the data resides for improved security in a remote work environment.
Data risk management
Another component of a data protection strategy is data risk management. Data risk management consists of analyzing data to identify potential risks and threats to the data to mitigate attacks before they occur.
Data risk management aims to minimize the likelihood of a data breach and minimize the impact and negative effect it might have on data.
It is important to periodically perform risk assessments of data as part of data risk management to identify the most appropriate prevention, detection, and mitigation processes.
Manage data storage
Almost every organization relies on network connectivity and data storage. Organizations today have much more data that is stored on the network than in previous years.
This makes data storage management a main component of a data protection strategy. Part of managing stored data is being able to efficiently optimize it as needed.
For instance, there will be data stored in the network that won’t be used anymore and can be deleted to make room for more data. Additionally, managing duplicate data by deleting the copies can save room for additional data as well.
Data backup and recovery is another main component of data storage management that should be practiced as part of a data protection strategy.
When disasters occur, it is important to have a plan in place to ensure that your network is back up and running as quickly as possible. Implementing a data backup protocol will periodically backup your data in the cloud to prevent data loss in case the network is compromised.
It is important to implement a disaster recovery plan that ensures your network is back up and running quickly and helps prevent data loss and permanent damage to your network.
There are many ways to set up a disaster recovery plan. However, it is important to design a disaster recovery plan that is personalized to meet your network’s needs.
Implementing a data protection strategy in your organization
Now you understand what a data protection strategy is and the main components that make a successful data protection strategy. This will help you understand how to create an effective strategy that will help better secure your data.
If your organization has poor data security, it can lead to data vulnerabilities that may result in data breaches.
Sensitive data such as information about company contracts or patient and customer information can be compromised or corrupted as a result of a data breach. A breach like this can lead to lost revenue, customers, and legal consequences as a result of compliance failure.
To avoid data breaches and their detrimental ramifications, it is important to understand what a data protection strategy is and its main components in order to implement a successful one.
Coeo understands how important a data protection strategy is and has helped thousands of organizations create strategies that better secure their data to avoid data breaches.
We want you to understand the main components of a successful data protection strategy so you can implement a productive strategy that is tailored to your organization.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about data security or ask any questions you may have you can schedule an appointment.
Now that you understand the main components of a successful data protection strategy, check out this article to learn what hybrid data security is to determine if it is right for your organization:
- What is Hybrid Data Security and Is it Right For Your Organization?
