Data security is a growing concern for many businesses — and not just large enterprises. According to a recent Hiscox report, 41% of small businesses have experienced at least one cyberattack in the past year, and small and medium businesses (SMBs) paid out over $16,000 toward ransomware attacks during that time. 

Every business, large or small, must prioritize data security in today’s marketplace. That means establishing a clear set of policies, practices, and tools to ensure sensitive company and customer information is safe from unauthorized access or outright loss. 

But what exactly does a robust data protection strategy look like? Below, we’ll explore some key best practices for data security.

1. Take a Data Inventory

The first step in any data private strategy is to understand what kind of data you’re dealing with. For instance, does your law firm store client medical information or other sensitive customer data? What kind of employee information do you have on file? How long do you keep this data, where is it stored, and what happens to it when it’s no longer needed?

Defining the current data collection and storage situation in detail will help you outline a plan for increasing security measures. Furthermore, you’ll better understand what types of laws and regulations apply to your situation (more on that in a moment). 

2. Create an Information Policy and Response Plan

Once you know what types of data you’re dealing with, you can establish a detailed plan for handling that information within your organization. The details of this plan can vary from one business to the next, but it should always address the four key elements of data security: confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, and availability.

• Confidentiality: Only authorized personnel can access the data, and access is directly in accord with job responsibilities.
• Integrity: A business data protection plan should ensure the data remains accurate and intact throughout its lifecycle. Plans must include backup storage in case of hardware or server failure.
• Authenticity: Data authenticity is closely tied to its integrity. Building authenticity into your data protection strategy requires a clear digital or paper trail for everything that happens to important data from its inception to its removal from your systems.
• Availability: Critical data must be accessible whenever it’s required for business operations, yet ransomware or other malware attacks deliberately block access to data to use this as leverage for financial gain. An information policy must include sufficient software, servers, and other means to ensure data is available when needed.

Finally, a complete data protection and security plan will also include steps and protocols for staff to follow if access is breached. Including a detailed action plan will help reduce downtime and costly damage from cyberattacks. 

3. Control Vendor and Employee Access

Access controls are an integral part of all data security best practices, as they prevent unauthorized parties from gaining control of sensitive company information. Here again, a simple device is helpful — strong access controls must address the three As of data security: authentication, authorization, and accounting:

• Authentication: The process of user verification was once based on simple user name and password configurations. However, newer methods for verification, such as biometrics, multifactor authentication (MFA), and hardware tokens are far more secure.
• Authorization: Access must be clearly correlated with employee or vendor roles, ensuring they are only authorized to access information vital for their jobs or relationship with the company.
• Accounting: Effective access control requires a system for monitoring all user sessions to verify details such as access location and device, session length, and resource usage. This provides an audit trail for the business to follow in the event of a breach.

4. Tighten Security With the Right Technology

Improving data security should be an essential question for any technology you consider. And this applies to much more than just data security platforms like your encryption devices or password management tools.

Every piece of software that integrates with your business presents a potential threat to data security, from your customer relationship management (CRM) application to your business accounting tools. Consider, for instance, how a law firm that relies on deposition transcriptions could be compromised if its transcription service doesn’t include up-to-date security protocols. 

That law firm’s data protection plan is incomplete without a tool like Rev’s VoiceHub, which leverages industry-standard security standards and upholds strict privacy protocols for its transcriptions.

5. Weave Security Into Your Company Culture

Data security is much more than a set of policies. At heart, business data protection is about your company culture. From top to bottom, employees and vendors should understand the importance of protecting sensitive information — and their role in securing it.

That means best practices for data security must be a regular part of the conversation throughout your company. Employee training should regularly include updates or reinforcement of critical security issues. Staff should also be tested frequently to see how they handle potential threats, from email phishing drills to checking work areas and devices for access vulnerabilities.

6. Expand Your Security Perimeter

In the era of cloud-based software and remote work, protecting data requires attention to a much wider range of potential access points and security threats. As such, a strong security plan must provide thorough directions for bolstering physical and digital security. A wide fence will include elements such as:

• A cloud security checklist to verify data is locked down on remote servers
• Virtual private network (VPN) access for remote workers
• Access restrictions and protocols for employee devices
• Rules for the use of personal devices to access company accounts and servers
• Directions for removing access to company accounts, devices, and servers upon termination or a change in authorization

Ensuring every data access point is kept secure “within the fence” will help your organization avoid costly data breaches that may be more difficult to track.

7. Keep Up With (And Go Beyond) Regulations

Each industry is subject to its own set of requirements for data security, and specific regulations apply to many companies that deal with sensitive customer data. 

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), for instance, applies to any organization that stores client medical information. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) governs how companies handle personal customer information in Europe, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) takes a similar approach on a state level in the U.S. Verify any regulations that apply to your organization and stay on top of changes in these rules.

If you really want to improve your data security, however, you should go beyond mere adherence to regulations. Achieving certifications like SOC Type II compliance shows customers and employees that you’re serious about handling their data responsibly. 

8. Run Audits and Make Improvements

No data protection strategy is complete without a plan for frequent audits to find weak points and vulnerabilities. Cyber attackers are constantly changing their methods, and current security protocols become out of date quickly — often within a matter of months.

Develop checklists for frequent internal audits, which should include a review of current practices and an assessment of company-wide adherence to those practices. Simulate various cyberattacks to find weak points that need to be addressed. Occasionally, you should outsource these audits to a third party for a more detailed, objective review.

Use the results of your audits to document necessary updates, employee training, or software upgrades required to bring your policies up to date.

How to Know If Your Security’s Enough

Evaluating the sufficiency of your existing data privacy strategy requires continuous careful review of your systems and industry best practices. You must regularly compare your strategies to current regulations and compliance standards and monitor systems and event logs for any signs of weaknesses or potential incidents. Employees should be continually trained and tested on proper protocols for handling data and access credentials. 

For additional verification, you can seek third-party certifications that confirm your organization’s data protection strategy is up to snuff. ISO 27001 and SOC Type II certifications apply broadly to any organization dealing with sensitive data, while certifications for the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) would apply to specific organizations in retail, healthcare, or law.

What to Look for in Cybersecurity Tools

Tools for improving data security have a wide range of features and functions. Here are a few key aspects to consider so you can ensure any tools you choose are effective:

• Core security features: Any worthwhile cybersecurity tool will provide core functionality such as data encryption, access management, real-time monitoring, and threat detection and prevention. 
• Ease of use and integration: The platform should be accessible and user-friendly even to those without technical knowledge. It should also easily integrate into application programming interfaces (APIs), cloud platforms, and key business technologies to guarantee comprehensive protection. 
• Functionality: Data security tools should hamper other business functions or significantly slow down processes. Look for uptime guarantees and frequent updates to ensure smooth operation.
• Scalability and adaptability: Make sure the software is flexible enough to adapt to your business’s unique needs and scalable enough that you won’t outgrow it in a year or two.
• Pricing that matches value: Business data protection is a necessary expense, but the price should fit the value of the service and the size of your company.
• Support quality: Check for comprehensive guides, tutorials, and online support modules, along with a proven track record for helping customers effectively implement their tools.

Secure Transcripts and More With Rev

Today’s businesses store unprecedented amounts of data — from internal company and employee information to records of thousands of customer transactions. Keeping that data secure is mission-critical for protecting your brand and avoiding costly fallout from data breaches.

This is especially true for companies that create transcripts and plumb them for vast amounts of data. Whether you’re just sharing internal meeting notes or combing through court records, you need to be sure the data is stored and transmitted safely, not to mention an accurate representation of what transpired. With Rev’s industry-leading security and powerful AI-human partnership, you can be confident on both fronts. 

Try Rev technology for yourself today.