Data leaks and high-profile hacks are happening daily, and in many cases they are inevitable. Worse yet, it seems like its happening to everyone, even big companies like T-Mobile, Ashley Madison and the IRS. Its difficult to be positive when even the U.S. government and related agencies arent safe.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be doing everything you can to not only prevent these breaches, but also protect your sensitive data from third parties. You have a duty to your customers, clients and employees to keep their personal information stored safely and securely.
Sadly, a large majority of breaches happen because those being attacked did not take the appropriate precautionary measures. We’re going to take a look at some advanced tips for preventing data leaks and hacks against your website or company.
Step 1: Secure Email Accounts
Believe it or not, the two most common ways data is leaked is via email or Web access, generally from a browser of some kind. As such, these two areas should be a primary focus when it comes to data leak prevention. A lot of times, a data breach happens as a means to collect personal information, which may not even be used by hackers until a later date.
Using a secure email provider is extremely important, as is ensuring all communications are encrypted. However, its just as important to lock down the network being used to access the Internet, since network security plays a crucial role in data leakage.
It is possible for unscrupulous individuals to tap into and hijack a network in order to intercept all incoming and outgoing traffic. Thats exactly why its important to cover all the bases. By utilizing a secure email provider, data encryption for all traffic and communications, and locking down your internal network you are effectively cutting off a majority of opportunities for would-be hackers.
Step 2: Secure Back-End Connections
Security for front-end applications and software is a given, as is security for an internal network or portal. Another area that a lot of companies seem to overlook when beefing up security is for what industry professionals call back-end connections, such as service accounts, servers and administrative dashboards.
This can be offset by leveraging a virtual directory server, or VDS. This implements a series of security protocols and access groups to ensure that only the exact amount of data necessary can be accessed by different users and software applications. A VDS can also be used to restrict and secure back-end connections, preventing enterprise data from being exposed accidentally or intentionally. Basically, it restricts the amount of incoming and outgoing data to cut down on leaks, but in a remarkably effective way.
Step 3: Define Emergency Protocols
In the event that there is a breach or data leak, you need to be prepared. That means you need to clearly define a set of emergency protocols before anything happens. This ensures you will act accordingly after a breach, both to further protect your remaining data and secure against future breaches.
Amazon goes through a force-reset process for customer accounts when they suspect something is wrong. It automatically resets passwords and sends out temporary codes to customers through email. This encourages everyone affected to change their password, and protects them in the event personal or account data was procured in a leak.
In addition, when a bring-your-own device environment is concerned, a central IT management or security team should be able to accurately control and monitor any and all personal devices that are connected to the network. Should one pose a serious threat, this gives them the option to revoke access and take action.
You can take this a step further by completing background checks and in-depth interviews with employees before giving them access to high-level systems, applications or data. Of course, thats never a surefire way to figure out whether or not someone is going to abuse their access, but it is definitely a beneficial precaution nonetheless.
In the end, good security is as much about preparation before an attack as it is about the reaction after one. By ensuring your company, website, customers and sensitive data are as secure as they can possibly be, you are eliminating at least some of the growing potential of a data leak. These days, thats more than you can say for a lot of high-profile companies out there.
