Data Security

An illustration of a person using a laptop surrounded by icons of locked clouds, keys, and files. A large laptop screen displays a lock icon surrounded by stars, symbolizing data protection and security concepts.

What is Data Security?

Data security is the practice of keeping digital information safe across its lifecycle, stopping cyberattacks, preventing unauthorized access, and protecting it from corruption.

Key Takeaways

Data security is a set of tools, tactics, and processes that keep company and individual data safe from attack or misuse.
There are serious threats to data security, including an organization’s own employees.
Following best practices can mitigate the risks.
Data security is sometimes confused with data privacy, but they are not the same thing.
It’s a vital business capability that protects reputation and achieves compliance.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

What is Data Security?
Key Takeaways
Types of Data Security
Data Security Tools
Data Security vs. Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
Data Security Strategies
Data Security Best Practices
Data Security Risks
Data Security Regulations
Data Security Pros and Cons
The Bottom Line
FAQs

Table of Contents

What is Data Security?
Key Takeaways
Types of Data Security

Show Full Guide

Data Security Tools
Data Security vs. Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
Data Security Strategies
Data Security Best Practices
Data Security Risks
Data Security Regulations
Data Security Pros and Cons
The Bottom Line
FAQs

Types of Data Security

An infographic detailing four types of data security: encryption for scrambling data, masking for hiding data, erasure for deleting data, and resilience for data backup and recovery. Icons represent each security type.

Businesses use a wide range of security approaches to protect their data.

Some of the most common types of data security include:

Encryption

Data encryption uses specialized software to hide the data in a file by scrambling it. Only those with the correct encryption key can unscramble and read it.

Masking

Data masking is a form of encryption that hides data by replacing specific characters to make it unreadable. The data can only be returned to its original state by someone with the decryption code.

Erasure

Data that is old, out of date, or no longer useful to an organization is typically marked for erasure and eliminated permanently from company systems. Erasing data is an effective way to remove the risk of a data breach occurring.

Resilience

Data resilience means avoiding accidental destruction or loss of data by creating regular backups. Even in the event of a data breach or ransomware attack, data resilience helps organizations get back to normal operations faster.

Data Security Tools

These commonly used tools help organizations centralize data security management of data security and stop data security breaches:

AntivirusVulnerability assessmentDiscovery and classificationAutomated reportingSecurity information and event management (SIEM)

Solutions that detect and remove malware and other kinds of malicious software from devices and servers. After installation, most antivirus software programs run automatically in the background, delivering real-time protection against infection and attack.

Solutions that make it easier to detect and minimize vulnerabilities in existing IT systems. These can include weak passwords, software in need of security patching, and files with a higher risk of exposure.

These tools search through an organization’s different data repositories and seek out sensitive information in databases, data warehouses, and data lakes. They automate the process and also make assessments of data vulnerabilities.

Solutions that track and collate regulatory compliance data for periodic reporting. They provide a centralized repository for past reports with detailed audit trails.

Security solutions that help security analysts manage the thousands of system alerts they receive every day and prioritize those most likely to indicate a real threat.

Data Security vs. Data Privacy & Cybersecurity

Data security: Protects company and personal data from unauthorized access or exploitation.
Cybersecurity: A complete set of protective measures to safeguard digital assets, including data, files, systems, devices, and end-users. It includes both data security and data privacy.
Data privacy: A form of data security. It ensures proper handling, processing, storage, and use of personal data.

Data Security Strategies

Data security strategies involve a collection of complementary tactics that apply to people, processes, and technologies.

These include:

Access management

The practice of granting advanced or administrative access to as few people as possible, typically to staff who require it as part of their role.

Patch management

Ensuring that all enterprise software has been updated to the latest version and that any interim security patches have been made between major releases.

Security awareness training

Turning employees into ‘human firewalls’ by training them to spot potential attacks, understand the rationale behind security procedures, and follow practices like strong passwords.

Endpoint monitoring

Establishing a blend of threat, detection, and response tools across on-premises, cloud, and remote working environments.

Data Security Best Practices

An infographic highlighting data security best practices: classifying sensitive data, setting policies for access and usage, and restricting data access with authentication and controls. A person working on a laptop with a padlock symbol in the background.

Identify and classify sensitive data into categories including public, private, confidential, and restricted
Establish data use policies that specify access levels, who has access to data, and what constitutes correct use of company data
Implement controls that restrict access to data and include measures for authentication

Data Security Risks

Insider threat

Employees can be one of the biggest risks to an organization’s data security, either through errors, lack of awareness, or malicious actions.

Accidental exposure

Related to insider threat is the risk of employees, vendors, or third parties with privileged access to company data negligently exposing sensitive information.

Malware

Malicious software like viruses proliferate through email and website-based attacks that are vulnerabilities in software.

Ransomware

A type of malware that infects shared company servers and devices and encrypts their data, making it unusable until a ransom fee has been paid in return for the encryption key.

Phishing

Involves fraudulent messages sent via email, text, or instant messaging service, sent by someone masquerading asa trusted contact. Phishing messages often use malicious links or attachments to download malware.

Data Security Regulations

The major data security regulatory regimes include:

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The US Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
The International Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Data Security Pros and Cons

Pros

Keeps sensitive information safe
Protects an organization’s brand reputation
Enables faster remediation after a cyberattack
Strengthens legal and regulatory compliance

Cons

Limits data visibility
Controls access in remote and hybrid working environments
Increases risks from insider threats
Complicates data governance and compliance

The Bottom Line

Data security covers a broad spectrum of tools and practices, which by definition can secure an organization’s most sensitive information.

It includes the measures used to provide physical security for data storage hardware, the applications and appliances that comprise enterprise cybersecurity infrastructure, and data governance – the administrative policies, procedures and access controls that determine how data can be used.