Technology is great — and Zecurion is in the business of providing industry-leading data encryption and data loss prevention solutions — but you also need to have an established policy for data handling and data protection. Tools like Zlock, Zgate, and Zserver do an excellent job of monitoring network traffic and locking down sensitive data to ensure it isn’t compromised or exposed, but no software tool is fool proof. They are there to augment and support the policies your organization has in place. Neither policy, nor technology alone can prevent every data breach incident, but the combination of a documented data protection policy, with the right technology to support it will give you peace of mind that your data is as safe as it can be.
So, what sorts of things should your data protection policy cover?
- A designated role responsible for maintaining the policy
- A system for defining the classification of data based on its sensitivity or criticality
- Provisions for conducting a risk analysis to identify where sensitive data is stored, how it is used, and where it travels to
- Established guidelines for data handling and protection procedures for employees
- Defined disciplinary measures for violations of the policy
- Restrictions on physical access to the servers that store and process sensitive data
- A plan for backing up critical and sensitive data, and ensuring that the backup data is secure
- A system for monitoring and periodically reviewing data access to ensure it is safe
- Define data breach incident reporting requirements and incident handling procedures
- Establish a periodic review of the data protection policy to modify or update it as needed
This is just a baseline, but it’s a start. If you don’t have a written data protection policy that your employees are aware of you can’t expect them to follow it. Develop an effective data protection policy, then support and enforce that policy with the award-winning tools from Zecurion.
