Cybersecurity is an ever-evolving field. Here, new and recurring threats present daily challenges. These risks range from ransomware attacks and insider threats to unintentional misuse and state-sponsored cyber activities, each taking on various forms.

It's crucial to safeguard essential enterprise data at its origin to avoid breaches. However, since data is generated and stored across multiple platforms - including users, networks, cloud systems, and devices - its protection requires considerable effort.

Thankfully, several available technologies, frameworks, and protocols are designed to bolster its security. Consider these recommended practices for data security to help fortify your company's precious information.

Establish Strong Access Management Measures

Data of considerable value or under regulatory control should be exclusively available to those needing it for their professional responsibilities. Implement robust access control strategies to determine which entities can access particular data, and consistently manage and review these entities' privileges.

Authorization and access control methods vary, including passwords, audit logs, multi-factor authentication, privileged access management, and obligatory access controls. Regardless of the chosen method, it should authenticate entities and permit access following the principle of least privilege. Effective access controls necessitate thorough monitoring and auditing to swiftly detect any irregularities or misuse.

Safeguard Data in a Physical Manner

Your organization's entire infrastructure is at risk from cybersecurity threats, with your employees often being the most significant vulnerability. Cybercriminals are aware that manipulating a staff member can be easier than penetrating your company's infrastructure.

This highlights the reasons to incorporate employee training into any data protection strategy. All staff members should be well-versed with Code security tools, understand cybersecurity best practices, and adhere to company policies. Regular training sessions should be conducted by your organization to ensure these practices remain a priority and to update staff on any new policies.

Back-Up Data

Regarding security, availability and integrity are just as paramount as confidentiality. The process of data backup fulfills these roles. A backup is essentially a duplicate of data stored in a separate location. This enables data recovery if the original copy gets deleted, corrupted, or inaccessible.

Backups should be performed regularly as per a set schedule. They could either be a total replication of data or an incremental backup that only records data modifications. It's also vital to safeguard your backups as they can potentially be attacked.

Refrain from Utilizing Default Network Ports

Data transmission between servers employs the use of TCP and UDP protocols. During their configuration, these protocols default to standard network ports. These default ports are frequently exploited in brute force attacks due to their ubiquity. By deviating from the use of default ports, a cyber attacker aiming at your server is forced to experiment with different port numbers, a process that involves trial and error. Due to the increased workload, this could dissuade the attacker from continuing their attempts. Nonetheless, when designating a new port, it's crucial to cross-reference with the port registry of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority to ensure the chosen port isn't already allocated for other services.

Conduct Regular Inspections

Similar to the role of audits in the corporate sphere, cybersecurity audits are routine checks on an organization's security status. These audits extensively evaluate a company or organization's security methodologies, including their policies, procedures, and technologies.

These audits are instrumental in detecting and addressing potential vulnerabilities before they become substantial issues. Additionally, they can be conducted following incidents to ascertain the cause and prevent future occurrences.

However, even with their critical role in ensuring data security within a corporation, many businesses have not implemented regular audit practices. Shockingly, recent research indicated that almost half (47%) of small businesses are unaware of how to shield themselves from cyber threats, and many lack a formal cybersecurity strategy.

Endnote

Data security aims to safeguard information through its inception. There's a risk posed by insiders who may deliberately breach security guidelines, mishandle data, or have their accounts infiltrated. It's recommended to apply the best practices highlighted in this article for achieving maximum data security.