Chapter 5: Protecting Data Privacy and Confidentiality

Data privacy and confidentiality are paramount concerns for businesses, particularly with the introduction of data protection regulations. In this chapter, we explore strategies for protecting sensitive data, including encryption, access controls, and data classification.

By prioritising data privacy and confidentiality, you can build trust with your customers and stakeholders while mitigating the risk of reputational damage.

Encrypting your data

Implementing encryption algorithms like AES or RSA to protect sensitive data can help mitigate against the loss or theft of devices, but data encryption doesn’t stop there. In an ideal world, data should be encrypted in its three states – at rest (data backups, data on your computer or devices), in use (data being used by applications or employees) and in transit (data being sent somewhere – e.g. file exchange). By implementing security measures to make sure your data is encrypted in all three states you will help keep your data safe.

Controls and Permissions

Applying access controls and user permissions to limit data access is the best way to make sure sensitive data is only seen by those who need to see it.

Classify your data

Classifying data based on its sensitivity and implementing appropriate protection measures ensures that you know where, what and how much sensitive data you have and need to protect.

Business impact

The potential impact on any business following a cyber-attack could be catastrophic. Not only could there be a financial impact from paying fines and in some cases the ransom (although I wouldn’t condone paying the ransom, always have backups!) but there is also the reputational damage that can occur. While the financial impact can be dealt with instantly, the reputational damage will last much longer and can often be the cause of a business failing following a breach if the financial cost doesn’t cause the business to fail first.