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Your data protection plan might need to be updated

Your data is important for all operations in your business. Data contains all information, from files and account folders to business applications and client information.  The key then for organizations of all shapes and sizes, is to have a plan to protect that data in the event of a cyberattack or natural disaster. It’s also important you review your data protection plan to keep it  up-to-date, and relevant with the direction your business is taking. Here are some things you should know about data protection strategies and when you should review them. 

Data protection plan: what is that? 

Data protection strategies encompass data availability and data management. In other words, it’s how a business stores, backs up, moves, and protects its data and makes it available to relevant personnel to comply with the law. 

Data privacy laws and regulations vary from country to country and even from state to state. Not being compliant can lead to steep fines and other penalties and mean that you have to stop doing business in the country or region where the law or regulation is breached. 

A data protection plan will ensure that:

  • No data is lost in the event of a disaster, accident, or cyberattack. 
  • Data is protected from corruption, compromise, manipulation, malware, and loss.
  • Data can be restored quickly in the event of any damage, corruption, or loss. 
  • Data is available to users at all times, whatever the circumstances. 
  • Data is kept private and can only be accessed by authorized personnel. 

A data protection plan is essential to secure compliance with the law, safeguard information and records, and save a business from downtime and lost productivity that could prove disastrous. 

Does your business need one?

CNBC.com reported that 40 percent of small businesses never recover from a disaster.  

When hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, or fires destroy customer records, invoices, contracts, tax returns, insurance policies, and so on, they lose customers, and the damage is irreparable.

Despite this, The Global State of Information Security Survey 2018 (GSISS) found that 33 percent of respondents do not have an IoT security strategy. Tech & Innovation reports that many organizations do not have sufficient plans in place to protect their data. Forty-four percent of respondents did not have an overall information security strategy, 48 percent did not have a security awareness training program for their employees, and 54 percent did not have an incident-response process. 

The right time to update your data protection plan

How often you update your data protection plan will depend on the nature of your business, the data that you hold, how many people have access to it, and how they access and use it, both inside and outside the work environment. For example, you might need to review your data protection plan with staff changes and when new devices, such as laptops, are obtained. 

For data that must be kept private, you need to maintain strict control over who can access it. A breach of privacy can lead to data security issues. Your employees must be fully trained in data privacy and security nuances to avoid any violations, and you need to keep firm control of BYOD devices and devices used outside the office environment. 

Remember to review: 

  • The security of passwords
  • The reporting of violations
  • Where rules are posted and who can and should read them
  • How data, files, paperwork, and printouts are destroyed when they are no longer needed 
  • How data is transmitted and shared between staff 

Also, assess whether you are using your data most effectively for reporting, analytics, test and development enablement, and other purposes. 

If you’d like to know more about data protection plans or our suite of co-managed services for businesses, please get in touch with us.