PDF Version: Comprehensive-Guide-To-Mobile-Data-Security
Tag: Data Breach Page 2 of 3
With the increasing need of improving efficiency and reducing latency, most organizations are opting for cloud-based services. However, there are some risks associated with using third party cloud hosting services. These risks may have an impact on various aspects of business which could have financial, legal and technical implications.
Some of the common risks associated with cloud-hosted data are:
- Consumer Visibility & Control: As the operations of an organization are transitioned to the cloud, it results in shifting of some responsibilities to CSP (Content Security Policy), which may lead to organization losing visibility or control over certain operations and assets. For example, network based monitoring and logging, limits an organization from accessing the details about its own application or data which should otherwise be easily accessible to the IT department. Thus, it is important to thoroughly ask the cloud service provider about various cloud hosting models and the level of control available before transitioning the operations.
- Unauthorized Use: In order to inculcate user-friendly approach, some cloud hosting service providers may allow self-service to the users. This gives end users the authority to add more services without seeking necessary permission from the IT department of the organization. The lack of extra security increases the chances of addition of malicious links or code in the application and use of unsupported software, which can lead to enormous security breaches. This makes it important to understand access levels and service specifications provided by cloud hosting company.
- Cloud Data May Be Compromised: Most of the business applications use APIs (Application Programming Interface) to manage and interact with the cloud services. If there are any vulnerabilities in API security, hackers may access and attack cloud resources and data of an organization. Compromised organization assets can be further used to perpetrate attack against other linked customers.
- Exploitation Of Software Vulnerabilities: A shared cloud hosting service is simultaneously used by different organizations. Thus, it is important for the service provider to maintain clear separation between the resources of different cloud hosting users. If the infrastructure fails to maintain this separation, it leads to the risk of cloud data leakage. This loophole provides the hackers a chance to access the cloud resources and assets of an organization to launch a successful data breach.
- Stolen Credentials: If organization’s credentials are compromised, hackers can easily take over the entire application which could result in Identity Theft attacks, deleted information, defamation of application interface, etc.
The risks associated with cloud-hosted data may lead to financial losses. Also, the cyber-attacks resulting from these risks mark a blow to the reputation of an organization. Thus, it is important to choose a cloud-hosting model and service provider after thorough diligence.
For more information on managing the risks of cloud-hosted data, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.
Data is one of the most important business asset. During the course of business, there may be instances which can lead to data breach or complete data loss. Such occurrences can result in huge financial losses and litigation for an enterprise. This makes investing in state-of-the-art data recovery and protection solutions as one of the most important tasks for an enterprise.
Comprehensive data protection solutions enable enhanced data backup and data recovery. These solutions help in eliminating accidental data loss, recovering quickly from ransomware, virus or other malicious attacks and preventing data corruption.
Some of the main features that you should look for in a data protection solution for your organization are:
- Incremental Forever Backup Solutions: This type of backup technology requires only one initial full backup. Once the full backup is completed, it is followed by an ongoing sequence of incremental backups. These solutions are useful in reducing the amount of data that goes around the network and the length of backup window. It is an optimized process of data restoration as only the latest version of backup blocks are restored.
- Instant Recoveries: There are a variety of new technologies that allow data to be restored almost instantly from backups that are both local and in the cloud. It is a feature that allows a backup snapshot to run temporarily on secondary storage so as to reduce the downtime of an application.
- Cloud Data Backup: Cloud backup solutions offer many advantages such as accessibility, file recovery and ability to tackle corrupted documents. It is commonly used in cases such as long-term retention, disaster recovery or even application testing. Cloud backup can replace on-site disk and tape libraries or they can also be used to store additional protected copies of data.
- Orchestration: Today’s advanced orchestration tools have made it possible to automate the entire recovery process. Also, orchestration provides coordination across many automated activities. It mainly enforces a workflow order to automated tasks and enhances data security with identity & access management policies. Additionally, orchestration eliminates the potential for any errors in provisioning scaling and other cloud processes.
- Deep Application Integration: It is important to ensure that the protected data can be accessed instantly without cumbersome consistency checks or other processes that may delay data access. Some of the basic requirements for a deep application integration are appropriate business rules and data transformational logic, adequate connectivity between platforms, longevity and flexibility of business processes, flexibility of software, hardware and other business goals.
For more information on Data Protection Solutions, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.
Making efforts to ensure organizational data security is of utmost importance in the wake of rising identity data breaches as well as cyber-attacks. It is extremely important to stay aware and alert of data breach incidents to minimize the effect and loss. Thus, in order to avoid the implications of data loss, one needs to design a data breach response plan.
Data Breach Response Plan acts as a guiding force to be followed when a data breach is discovered. If you already know what to do and how to do it; it would help in saving both time as well as efforts. Also, a well drafted strategy helps you avoid missteps at the time of crisis.
Setting Up A Response Plan
- Define Breach: The first step is to define the term ‘breach’ i.e. deciding the type of incident that would initiate a response. For example, a phishing email might not have as much impact on the company as a ransomware attack. So, a business needs to categorize the serious issues and then work on the causes of disruption. There are many aspects that need to be monitored i.e. from compromise of private & confidential information to material loss such as distributed denial of service (DDoS).
- Form The Response Team: There are numerous things that need to be done once a data breach is discovered. So, a good data response plan pre-sets the roles that everyone needs to perform. Every individual has a designated and defined task that he has to perform in the need of hour. Following are the teams who should be assigned the roles & responsibilities beforehand:
- IT Security Team
- Legal Team
- Communication Team
- Risk Management Team
- Human Resource Team
However, it is important to make sure that you vest this responsibility in your trusted employees who understand the complexity of the situation. Other factors such as size of the company, type of data breach etc. also govern the size and composition of response team.
- Design Course Of Action For Every Scenario: The response plan should lay down a proper procedure of steps that need to be taken when a data breach occurs. Decide the course of action that needs to be followed for escalating the incident through the organization hierarchy once a data breach is discovered.
- Setup A Follow-Up Procedure: Once you have been able to implement the plan to control a data breach, sit with your response team and review. Do a follow up and list down the problems faced by members, lessons learnt, etc.
For more information about IT Security, call Centex Technologies at (254) 213-4740.