The business world increasingly relies on data, which has become a valuable asset for organizations of all sizes. So valuable that data security is no longer an ‘additional’ component in business management. It is a core operation in itself and a critical component of business resilience and long-term success.
Leaders of SMEs who want to promote data security in their organizations might find that most information on the internet caters to large corporations. However, in this guide, you’ll find actionable advice relevant to your business and that you can start to apply.
Cyber Insurance
Data is the lifeblood of all organizations today, size regardless. Loss of data is not simply the loss of some important information; it also often translates into financial losses as well as reputational downfall.
The rising spate of ransomware attacks in the past few years is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that data security is a critical component of any business. Thus, businesses globally have had to rethink their approaches to safeguarding data and protecting their organization from collapse.
These approaches include purchasing cybersecurity insurance to mitigate the financial fallout from cyberattacks. Cyber insurance can cover a wide range of expenses, including data recovery costs, business interruption losses, ransom payments, legal fees, reputational damage expenses, etc.
In fact, in many organizations, cyber insurance has become a major component of incident response. So, providers are not merely financial safety nets, but they are also valuable partners in strengthening any company’s posture.
SMEs are less likely to purchase cybersecurity insurance, but they are also often in dire need of it. According to a report, 91% of SMEs with a cyber insurance policy said the policy helped them avoid potential incidents.
Investing in cyber insurance will, in no small measure, bolster your confidence in your company’s data security position.
Complete Visibility
There is no data security without visibility. But in today’s current business landscape, with remote work, BYOD policies, and widely dispersed endpoints, achieving complete visibility into an organization’s data landscape is almost impossible. This applies even to SMEs.
However, the same very reasons are why visibility must be achieved. Every loose endpoint is a data disaster waiting to happen and the loss of visibility is easily the loss of data. So many tools and technologies have been developed to mitigate the complexity of data visibility.
These include traditional Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), and Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB), among others. All these target the same goal but perform different functions.
Lately, Data Detection and Response (DDR) has emerged as a solution that brings together elements of the former technologies by tracking the flow of every piece of data, maintaining contextual information, and giving security teams a complete and continuously updated genealogy of data.
So, you can see where the data is coming from, how it has been used, users and applications that have interacted with it, and other relevant information. Then you can enforce policies to control the flow of data going forward.
To maintain complete visibility of critical data, organizational leaders must continuously monitor and adapt as their company’s data landscape evolves.
Data Governance
Data security is not simply a responsibility owed to the customers of your business. A rapidly increasing number of governments across the United States and the world have drafted legislation mandating data security, especially when a company collects personal information.
This factor has necessitated that leaders pay heightened attention to data governance within their organizations.
More so, most businesses today either operate fully on the cloud or have moved some of their data workflows to the cloud. This means that responsibilities must be defined and redefined, especially since remote collaboration is one of the primary factors of cloud computing.
Data must be accessible to those who need it and will reasonably handle it; at the same time, it must be protected from unauthorized access and misuse. Achieving this requires the establishment of patterns and processes fostered by a shared understanding of the importance of data across the organization.
SMEs are more likely to have ‘loose’ organizational structures, with boundaries between roles not well-defined compared to big corporations. While such kinds of structure may keep a small business agile, especially in the face of limited resources, it is not ideal for promoting data governance and security.
Your SME needs to have comprehensive data usage policies with roles and responsibilities clearly defined. In addition, documentation is critical to data governance as you need to promote consistency and transparency in your practices to ensure continuous improvement.
Employee Education
Data security is not just a technical challenge; it’s a human one. Technology can only do so much to filter phishing emails. At the end of the day, it’s the person behind the computer who has to decide whether to click or ignore the unfortunate link that causes data exfiltration.
The point here is that employees play a critical role in protecting sensitive data handled by your SME. It might sound cliche but employees really do need to be empowered to be responsible stewards of data.
More so, as new kinds of vulnerabilities and threats are discovered, so must organizations update their training content to keep up with the times. So, educating employees on data security matters must be central in the organizational culture.
Effective data security training has to be tailored to the specific needs of your small business. It should address the types of data the organization handles, the associated risks, and the best practices for protecting data throughout its lifecycle.
Of course, it should also be integrated into the onboarding process for new employees so that they have a clear foundation of knowledge and awareness.
One area that is often ignored in employee security awareness, though, is measuring the impact of training. Following each training section, there should be key performance metrics to ensure that whatever training has been conducted impacts employees in a positive way and promotes greater data security company-wide.
Conclusion
By implementing robust data security practices, cultivating a data-conscious workforce, and investing in comprehensive cyber insurance, SMEs can safeguard their valuable data assets, build trust with customers, and thrive in the data-driven economy.
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