In a previous blog we shared 7 common recommendations to protect your systems. Now, let’s look at 3 recommendations to protect your data.
Can you ever be 100% sure you have completely cleaned up a compromised system after a breach? The only answer is no. You have to be able to completely rebuild any system to a known and trusted state before the incident. Therefore, it’s important to have good data backup and system reinstallation procedures.
Suppose that someone lets you know you have been breached. Do you know what to do? You should have a plan rehearsed and ready so you can react to incidents accordingly. Because ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’. Decide who is in charge and what needs to be done. Determine who can make the tough decisions, such as unplugging a business critical server. You also need to know whom you can call for help. You should rehearse your plan regularly. Compare it to a fire drill.
You have a lot of security measures deployed in several locations of your IT environment. But the local environment surrounding your data is sometimes overlooked. If you have data in a less secure environment, you should consider data encryption. That is especially important on laptops, because they have a tendency to get lost or stolen. You don’t want any sensitive data ending up in the wrong hands, or in the wild. Can you easily identify sensitive data thanks to security classification labels on your documents or other characteristics? Then it’s worth considering Data Loss Prevention (DLP) or Digital Rights Management (DRM) to prevent your data from leaking.
