How to Prevent Common Data Leak Mistakes

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Data Leak is a term which is often ignore by many. We add up costly security software on our business computers and stay calm. But that is really secure? Won’t you think that other than virus infection there are more things that can affect your data? I am not talking about Data Loss here, I am going to discuss on Data Leak. This is one thing that gets inside the shadow and does not really popup widely. But there are chances when your enterprise data in on risk. It can get leaked out which might or might not be manipulated. It depends on your luck. Won’t you think someone is spying on you precious data? The thing which took years to build, but goes in someone hands within some clicks. If you are a security admin then that is the place where you should stop sleeping. Data Leak happens due to number of software and physical errors. There are chances that under nose someone might draw your data out. This can be very problematic. Today there are tons of software’s, framework, security tools, etc available.

To start a business or to operating an ongoing work, we simply hire someone who is responsible to give the best solution for Data protection and management. We go for a packed ready to use framework which does the job. But there are chances that some of them are not eligible for this operation. Also it it not possible for every business to keep a regular monthly survey about new Data tools in market. That will be a messy job. My motive is to explain all possibilities of Data Leak here. So that atleast you can stay aware and do not get caught on malpractices. Somehow due to security hole, software bugs, etc your data always remains on risk.

One question that arise in my mind here, is you completely satisfied with your existing security? The answer will be between YES and No. So that means you are not sure about that. At some part there is doubt in your mind, which can be the cause of loss. I will recommend you to keep a watch on such stuff. Do not ignore your data security. It can be too costly for you in future. Companies a huge amount on Data Backup also. Because no one likes to start from scratch. A Data consist of vital information which are collected over years and which is kind of your work lifeline.

There are some basic things that can help you to prevent Data Leak. This is quiet important for those companies which interact directly to different users via web interface. It is not possible that a Data breach will always begin from outside. Due to some in-house practice this issue can appear. It is found from a survey that from 10 around 6 times a company is affected due to internal practice. That consist of leaking confidential data by a employee, or simply sharing crucial company information, using some new kind of software without checking vulnerabilities, improper security around entire company network, outdated software’s, usage of pirated tools on business network, poor IT dept. to track or monitor data activity, etc. New technologies offer you more power to combat with this kind of breaches. It is very important that if you are big enterprise hire someone and keep him to monitor day to day data activity. This will give you information of breach from source and major leaks can be prevented.

Some of the big enterprises have already faced this issue on larger scale. It is not possible to stop this permanently. Because such accidents happen. They are done sometime intentionally while sometime there is no reason behind it. For every company Security is the weaker point. First it is quiet necessary that you keep changing your security policies. You should implement the most new and latest option available for you. There are some numbers of measures that can help you to fight this. This has two parts. First detecting the threat as early as possible and second getting rid of it.

Detection consists of a quiet complicated process and needs skills. There are security companies which offer you tools that can help you to monitor your Data activity. That is the part where you can catch any leakage, because a security admin know from where the data travels and reaches who. Also he knows the limit of data usage based on users. So if there is huge amount of data simply sucked from a website, necessary actions can be taken. Data is an asset to company and it needs protection.

[Orton]

Causes of Data Leak:

This is worth to discuss here. You might be surprised to found that from 10, around 7 people believe that Data Leak happens because of wrong applications used in your business computer. Also from 10, around 4 people are responsible for this because they share their working computers with others. Also a number of people share sensitive information with others. This can be the login access to the network. This are thing which must be taken in point also. People those transfer data from company computer to home are to some extent responsible for data breach. A regular data audit can help you to take necessary measures before something happens.


Measure to Avoid Data Leak:

Security Policies: Server level software is equipped with features. Security policies are like guards. They only provide access on the base of security policy assign to that user. So if the user has low level access he cannot move much ahead on the same hand the user gets a limitation of playing with your Data. It is recommended that you must have a person which is expert is managing security policies. That person only knows how those security policies can be implemented properly. Also this helps you to reduce your cost on IT. Reason, if you have a good security policy control on your server, you do not require to put any third party service. With regular security policy check and appropriate practice the breaches can be avoided. Also it is a kind a responsibility to identify the person inside your company which can be responsible of leak. It is recommended that you must change the security policy after a regular time interval so that there should be minimum loss. Because once if the information related to policies which are protected your data is leaked, the people involved in breach can change the way of attack.

But if the polices are modified and changed periodically the data became less vulnerable to attack. Do not allow the users to install applications or use new software under your business network. Let them carry a different laptop which cannot access any network. Also do not allow users to use their home computer on the business network. That can be the most risky thing. Because there can be virus, malware, spyware, etc on their personal computer. It is not possible for a company to scan and check each of them. This will be an additional cost. Force users to use powerful password and allow them least privileges.

Protect Sensitive Data first: This is an ability of a skilled person who knows properly to make a difference between sensitive and regular data. Every company wants the sensitive data to be protected on priority. So here you have to ensure more protection of sensitive data. There should be a group of people who must be assigning to keep a close track on sensitive information only. Because if one this sensitive information is leaked they can make heavy impact on your business. The place where sensitive information lies, must be different and minimal service deployed. Like do not provide any kind of print, internet, rights to anyone on that. That system should be isolated and protected with tougher security policy. At this point Data encryption is one thing that came in the picture. User powerful encryption on your entire network. Because a weak network can be the source of threat. It is better if you can isolate the data network separately.

Regular Data Monitor: It is fair if your IT department can monitor the data activity. There are number of powerful tools which give your right log on the ongoing activity. In this way it becomes easier to find if any things happens. As I said above it is easier to find the breach source which is most important. Enterprise data are always no risk. Real-time data monitoring let you to keep a track on user’s usage. You can find easily which user goes above the limit. Data Monitoring is not a complex process. It just needs dedication. The logs are created simple and can be viewed any time. Also at this point I will recommend one more thing. As times goes on upgrade your hardware. For example you have a router on your network which is more than 5 year or older. Change it. Because this hardware will not receive more upgrade. You can sign up with some good re-sale contract with buyer at the time of purchase. They offer you a re-sale value based on time used. So that will reduce the cost on actual purchase.

Multiple Locations for your Data Backup: AT smaller level this is effective. It is always recommended that you must keep your entire data at one place. They should be divided into multiple places or simply copied in much location. Because somehow if one location is facing issue related to hardware failure, software failure, virus attack, etc the other location can be ready to continue your business operations. You cannot just shutdown your work because of this. Avoid using most vulnerable operating systems also.

Data Prevention Tools :

We are lucky that in this era we had ample tools that can help you to keep secure for such issues. I found a list of different tools on Wikipedia. I tried my best here to give a short summary of all those. They are dividing into Network DLP, Storage DLP, Endpoint DLP and File Level DLP. DLP stands for Data Leak Prevention. The measures are taken on the basis of requirement. Like Network DLP provides you solution on the base of certain hardware and software level to protect your inflow and outflow of data. This is the more common solution that can be implemented over network. Security polices here play vital role in protect the data usage. It controls usage and protects wrong flow of data. Compared to that Storage DLP is different. It offers you a mechanism that is work on the storage level itself while Endpoint DLP work on very end user pc.