Guaranteeing Data Security in an Unsecured World
The digital power of the internet drives the modern world. Since the digital age ushered in a new era, ordinary internet users and corporations have been increasingly concerned with data security and online privacy.
Although there’s no denying all the benefits that the digital era brought to the table, it also brought a lot of challenges never experienced before. Cybercrime continues to wreak havoc on the online world, slowly but surely increasing and expanding with each passing day. For instance, 81% of organizations witnessed increased cyber threats since the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Since data security has become a priority for many digital businesses and internet users alike, let’s talk about why it matters to keep your data secure in the online business world.
The ever-increasing importance of data security
The online business realm is constantly evolving and advancing, bringing new cyber threats to billions of internet users. Because of that, data security has never been more important than today.
If we look at the global internet community today, we can see that almost all personally identifiable information, including your personal and business data, is digital.
All cybercriminals need is to find a way to harvest that data and use it to their advantage. That’s why so many businesses are increasingly investing in cybersecurity technologies and solutions. These solutions allow them to prevent data and security breaches that could result in third parties getting unauthorized access to sensitive and valuable private and business data.
The information hackers are after can range from medical records and bank account credentials to military and business secrets. For ordinary internet users, a data breach could result in identity theft.
For businesses, it could be anything from loss of valuable data and medical records to legal issues and bankruptcy. Thankfully, modern companies have a lot of fantastic ways to strengthen their cybersecurity measures.
How to improve your digital data security
If you want to protect your sensitive commercial and residential data, there are a couple of ways you can do so. The most popular way of securing data is by encrypting it.
Encryption scrambles your information into the form of a code that requires a special encryption key to read it. The main goal of encryption is to render your data unusable to any third parties who attempt to access it without your authorization.
You can also use the method of data masking that allows you to hide your sensitive data and replace it with modified data that appears real to third parties. It’s one of the most useful ways of protecting sensitive information that can protect you against identity theft.
Both residential and commercial internet users also use authentication as one of the security measures for protecting valuable data. It allows for the use of usernames and passwords to grant access to valuable information.
Data backups
Even though data backups don’t protect or secure your data against cyberattacks, this method allows you to store all your sensitive and vital data in a secure place.
In case someone manages to breach your security and steal or compromise your data, you’ll have a backup that you can instantly resort to if need be. Data backups are an excellent way to ensure protection against natural disasters and restore your processes in a matter of minutes.
A Virtual Private Network
A VPN is essential to protecting your data in the digital age. A VPN stands for a Virtual Private Network that acts as an intermediary between you and the internet.
When you need to go online, you can connect to VPN servers and reroute your traffic through a secure and encrypted tunnel. No one can view the data traversing through the tunnel. Additionally, you also receive an IP address associated with the VPN server chosen. Thus, web entities will no longer be able to read your true location.
Use reliable apps
There are many apps that you can use. However, please download applications that offer the best conditions for your data privacy. For instance, you do not want an unknown app to have access to your contacts or photo gallery. If they do require such privileges, find out how they are going to use such rights. A great rule is to consider whether that app needs certain access. For instance, a mobile game has no business getting access to your microphone or camera.
Conclusion
Data security measures and technologies are no longer an option in a digital business landscape but a necessity that any internet user, corporate or residential, simply cannot do without.
It is also essential to emphasize that cybersecurity measures need constant evaluation to ensure your safety mechanisms are up to date.
Just as you have multiple cybersecurity solutions to tap into, so do hackers. Constant vigilance is the only way to stay ahead of the cybercriminals in this never-ending war for data. Be critical of the services, websites, and apps you use. Then, you can look for certain red flags that might compromise your security and privacy online.
