5 Security Best Practices to Protect Your Sensitive Data

Managing sensitive data has become more challenging with today’s IT infrastructure. More companies are relying on cloud services and allowing their employees to work remotely or in hybrid workstations. Moreover, some companies use a bring-your-own-device system. Therefore, companies have to strike the perfect balance between making information accessible to all teams while protecting sensitive information.

 

Online and e-commerce stores are increasing rapidly, with more businesses offering their products and services online. As a result, cybercrime is also on the rise. Approximately 15 million data records were breached worldwide in the third quarter of 2022. Companies and individuals must therefore adopt strategies to protect data security.

 

This article will discuss the best security practices for protecting sensitive information. But first, let’s understand what sensitive data is.

 

 

Sensitive data covers a wide range of topics requiring different security measures to prevent data breaches and leaks. It compromises any data whose unauthorized disclosure could harm an organization or individual. Sensitive data is more than Protected Health Information (PHI) and Personally identifiable information (PII). Though there are regulations to protect PHI and PII, sensitive data is broader than the two.

 

Trade secrets and intellectual property, such as source codes, algorithms, recipes, and formulas, are sensitive data. Such information may not be stored in structured databases and may exist as word documents, PDFs, and spreadsheets. However, companies must protect the data at all costs because any leakage or breach could be costly. 

 

 

You need to protect your sensitive data, whether you are an individual, a company, or a government institution. You must have secure methods of gathering, processing, storing, and sharing sensitive information. Here are tips and tricks to ensure your sensitive data is safe.

 

 

Encryption uses an algorithm that transforms data into unreadable text, preventing unauthorized parties from reading or modifying the data. It makes it challenging to read the data even if someone intercepts or steals it because they will need the decryption key to convert it to readable form. 

 

There are numerous ways of encrypting sensitive data. For instance, you can encrypt at the file system level, which is suitable for an entire storage device or specific files. Furthermore, you can use end-to-end encryption, which protects communication between entities from being intercepted and modified by unauthorized individuals. 

 

 

Internet service providers (ISPs), government entities, and hackers monitor your online activities for different reasons. Government agencies want to understand your political and economic inclinations, while ISPs want to sell your data to marketers who can create targeted ads. However, hackers monitor you for malicious reasons; they want to steal your data and profit from it. 

 

VPNs provide an excellent way of browsing privately and securing by masking your IP address and encrypting your data. For instance, the best VPN for MacBook free will offer secure browsing, top-grade encryption, and lighting-fast browsing. A service provider's source link will provide more information on what a specific VPN can offer. With so many VPN companies, weighing them and deciding which best suits your needs is essential. An excellent way to find a VPN is to look review sites that compare different VPNs. Such websites can lead you to the best Mac VPN software and help you find a VPN that suits your needs. 

 

 

Passwords are the first line of defense when protecting your sensitive data. However, most people need better password practices that involve using one password for multiple accounts and simple passwords such as the date of birth. According to statistics, poor passwords account for about 81 percent of all company data breaches. But how can you manage so many passwords for all the different accounts?

 

The biggest challenge with passwords is remembering all the passwords for all the accounts you have. Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about passwords with a password manager. This tool will create and store strong, unique passwords for all your online accounts. Furthermore, you only have to remember a single password .ie., for the password manager. 

 

 

Though passwords are the primary line of defense and a strong password may offer adequate protection, don’t rely on a single layer of security. 2FA and MFA provide multiple levels of security, which is ideal for modern cybersecurity. They offer secure methods of authentication by requiring more information from the user to verify their true identity.

 

The key difference between 2FA and MFA is that 2FA has two authentication levels while MFA has more than two. Numerous organizations, like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), have recognized the importance of multi-factor authentication. Such organizations have made 2FA of MFA compulsory for certain account-related tasks, like making payments.

 

 

An outdated operating system and antivirus software can compromise your data security. Cybercriminals develop malicious codes that can penetrate modern systems. Therefore, developers are constantly releasing updates with better security features.  

 

In addition to preventing security issues, updates can also improve program features and compatibility. These features help to enhance the end-user experience.

 

 

Data breaches are on the rise, and organizations and individuals must adopt the best practices to ensure sensitive data is safe. A free Mac VPN can protect you from numerous cyberattacks by hiding your IP address. However, we recommend combining several of the above practices to ensure your data is safe.