Various Ways to Avoid Employee-led Data Loss

0

With the ever-growing technology, various organizations are moving to cloud storage, big data, etc. for a secured and efficient data management. In addition, the concept of bringing your own device (BYOD) is adding up to the pressure of many organizations to bring their business in line with the latest test technology. However, there is an always a risk of cyber attacks, which keeps looming with such advancements. Such security challenges prove to be a real threat for many IT professionals.

In any organization, there are various external and internal factors than can harm the data. In many cases it could be an internal out-of-control employee. According to a recent survey done by the British Standards Institution (BSI), more than one-third of the IT professionals think that the real threat to an organization is its own uncontrollable employees. This report was published and presented in the recently conducted Infosecurity Europe 2014 conference.

However, around 46 percent of the employees from Britain and Europe claimed to be well-prepared to control or combat any threat to the information security. In any case, it does not prove that all the employees carry the same intention to harm the data protection policies in an organization. According to Suzanne Fribbins, a risk management expert at BSI, it is not necessary for employees to be malicious to harm a company. However, they need to be careful with their actions in an organization, as they never know the consequences or a possible risk associated with it.

The same concept can be applied to various organizations around the globe. Some positive steps need to be taken to educate the workforce with various risk factors. The risk could be an external risk or could be associated with their actions. For example, employees need to be taught, how to handle sensitive or confidential information. In addition, in case of any malicious activity, any unauthorized access to any resources should be prevented.

There are a few considerations that need to be followed, to avoid any employee-led data loss.

  • Unauthorized Access must be Denied

You must implement required access controls at all levels. There are many incidents that are internal. However, any uncontrolled external agent can also spoil someone else’s work. This mainly happens because in most cases external agents are not authenticated.  For example, in case you are using a fax server to store important information, you need to allow only authorized access to the information.

  • Encryption while Data Transition

The information is always at a risk while getting transferred across an unsecured network. With the increasing trend like BYOD, information is now at a higher risk than before. Any mischief person can get into the public Wi-Fi hotspots and cause the damage. Thus, it is strongly recommended having a highly encrypted channel for communication.

  • Prevent Information Leakage

There should be no information leakage of any kind in between two network areas. There is always a risk in allowing the employees to use their own way of storing and processing the data. Some might use the cloud storage account to upload documents by breaking certain rules and regulations, putting the security at risk. In order to handle personal data like payment card numbers, it is best to store them within a secured environment at all times.

  • Regular Audit Trail

Technical controls are not always feasible in preventing any employee-led data loss situations. Many a times it is required to have an audit trial to monitor all the suspicious activity in a network. Such trials have proven to be successful in many cases of threats before they have become incidents.

With the increased use of BYOD devices, many professional carry their personal devices like Mac, iPad, Smartphone, etc. into the organization. Such devices contain user personal data as well. Any data breach could lead to the loss of personal data on such devices as well. There could be many different reasons for data loss occurring in personal devices like Mac. Some of the most common reasons for data loss in Mac devices are mentioned below.

  • Accidental Deletion of Files
  • Sudden System Crash
  • Virus Attack
  • Unexpected Hardware Failure
  • Power Outages

In addition to the above-mentioned reasons, there could be many different situations in which you might end up losing your Mac data. So, in case your Mac data becomes inaccessible or gets lost due to any of the mentioned reasons, you can get back the data by restoring it from a backup, if you have created any. It is very important to have a data backup, as it avoids any data loss situation. It ensures data safety and makes it available to you whenever you need them. However, in case you have not backed up your data, it becomes a little difficult to restore back lost files on Mac. However, data recovery on Mac is easily possible through a professional tool like Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery.

Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery is an ideal tool to bring back your lost Mac data. The tool efficiently recovers all lost data from all kinds of Mac devices including iMac, MacBook Pro, Air, Mac Mini, Mac Pro, etc. The software also supports RAW data recovery along with recovery from NTFS – based boot camp partitions. In addition, it is compatible across a wide range of OS X versions including the latest Mavericks.