How to Keep your Big Data Safe from Hackers in 2018: A Comprehensive Guide

Big Data has received massive support from corporations and mega organisations worldwide. Even users love how Google instantly predicts what they are looking for, all thanks to the massive amount of data these companies collect.

However, it may sound extremely difficult and complex to secure such massive amounts of data from the prying eyes of hackers. Such information, if acquired by the wrong people, can lead to devastating results.

Why is Big Data so Crucial?

The name says it all, because only the biggest security breach can actually gain access to massive amounts of data, and the consequences will inevitably be beyond what anyone can imagine. A hacker may choose to exploit the information they gain access to, including weblogs, user history, stream data, click habits and social media content.

Besides, organisations are paranoid about security because most companies don’t have the infrastructure to build their own server farms and rely on third-party providers to get the job done.

When you are looking to contract a company to do the task for you, make sure to go through the security measures they have in place because safeguarding data against hackers in 2018 is one of the important aspects of building a better future and earning a positive reputation among your customers.

If companies don’t take steps to protect their security, their data could end up on data dump websites or data leaking platforms. Some types of data could even be published on torrent sites. Many torrent sites have become very popular this year among users around the world. These risks should make companies even more concerned about keeping their data secure going forward.

Securing Big Data

Before venturing into the huge world of data storage, it is mandatory to know that there is no one consolidated method to secure data. It involves a series of processes including keeping the hardware safe, always monitoring it using cameras and automatically verifying the log systems which help ensure only authorised personnel are gaining access to the servers.

Log management systems play an integral role in helping secure the data available. This system was not developed in recent times because even during the times when manual papers were used in companies, they relied on signatures and entries to identify unauthorised access.

Similarly, in modern days you are supposed to make use of digital signatures, entries and log sheets to keep track of the activities that occur.

Endpoint Filtering is Mandatory

After years of working with increasing data, companies have officially identified that endpoint filtering is one of the safest and most reliable ways to safeguard your servers.

Make use of trusted certificates and ensure that only authorised mobile devices are allowed to connect to the network with the help of mobile device management (MDM). Some common attacks that endpoint filtering stops include ID-spoofing, Sybil attacks and malicious inputs.

Establishing Real-Time Compliance

A tough call for most companies is to establish real-time compliance on data that is being used at present, but with the help of tools like secure shell (SSH), Kerberos and IPSec (Internet Protocol Security), it is quite possible.

It will help as a back-end boost for front-end security measures such as firewall applications and routers, and it can keep track of all the data activity that is going on with reliable log reports.

In the past, it has been identified that Big Data owners were duped by hackers by falsifying data transaction information while they gained access to the infrastructure. However, new software tools have released updates to stop them. And you should also take steps on your end to ensure the same tricks are not used again in 2018.

Real-Time, Location-Specific Security Always Works Against Hackers

While the entire world is moving towards a digital setup where everything is done over the internet and through servers, it still comes down to the bare essential ‘humans.

The people who are actually operating the content is what hackers often target because human errors can always lead to a security breach when they are tricked into clicking links, opening e-mails or accessing folders they are not supposed to.

Security professionals suggest that when companies use differential privacy where record identification is kept to the minimum and query accuracy is pushed to its maximum extent, it ensures data privacy is maintained at all points. Compared to the average internet data, homomorphic encryption to process and safeguard Big Data is expected to witness further adoption in 2018.

Employees working in a company should be provided dedicated training to ensure they always use authorised mechanisms and devices to access private data. It is the most basic route through which hackers may gain access to the database and it is important to maintain the safety of the software infrastructure by denying access to anyone ‘even the authorised personnel when they leave the designated area.

Cryptography to Read Through Encrypted Data

Some trained professionals believe that cryptography has gone out of fashion, but as a matter of fact, the ability to read through encrypted information and identify malicious code is made much easier with the help of improved cryptography methods. They make use of symmetric encryption SSE protocol, enabling corporates to read through encrypted data.

Similarly, relational encryption allows data professionals to compare encrypted data without making use of the keys provided, thus ensuring they are safe to work with. For cloud-based services, which is often a commonly used setup in Big Data, attribute-based encryption (ABE) allows the security team to ensure no duplicate data is found on the cloud, which is what hackers make use of to gain access into secured networks.

Large corporate entities and newly established companies have already started making use of granular access control which is basic, yet gets the job done.

Ranging from tracking requirements to maintaining access labels, keeping track of admin data and using single sign-on, you can ensure security. Granular auditing is essential as it helps to keep track of the processes going on in the massive infrastructure. Audit reports should always be collected and kept track of because it is a reliable way to safeguard large amounts of data.

When all the best methods are combined and followed meticulously to secure Big Data, it is not an impossible or tough task. In fact, it’s quite feasible with the right team and security measures in place.