Once a cybersecurity section with little or no interest, data protection, privacy, and management is now a major concern of every business owner, team, and Individual, data, often termed as a corporate asset, can either boost or slow down operations depending on its handling.
Data should be protected by all means because if in the wrong hands, it can result in catastrophic damage to your company’s reputation, breach data, and harm so many Individuals. While the reasons for protecting data cannot be overstated, knowing how to safeguard your data is crucial.
For a better understanding of what data protection is all about and how you can confer protection on your data, this article will serve as a clear and comprehensive guide to walk you through.
What Is Data Protection?
In simple terms, Data protection involves securing sensitive and useful data, ensuring its availability solely to the respective business organizations for specific purposes. These protected data will be secured so as not to compromise privacy.
Data protection leverages various technologies, and many companies have adopted strategies incorporating data masking protocols into their operations. Why? Since they are the ones to encrypt the data, decoding data masking will be difficult for anyone outside their operations.
Besides cyber attacks, other key reasons to protect data include avoiding storage issues, unintentional deletion of your company’s intellectual properties, and data loss.
What is GDPR?
GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulations, which encompass a set of personal data protection and privacy laws enacted for users and businesses in the European Union (EU).
As companies expand, they accumulate more data, which is then stored across various networks worldwide. This expansion increases the risk of data loss, privacy breaches, and heightened landscape attacks.
In light of this, establishing compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) can provide your organization with a robust data protection and privacy foundation.
Below are some of the steps you should take:
10 Essential Steps For Data Protection
● Data Audit:
Before encrypting your data, you must understand what type of data your organization collects, what it contains, and where it’s located.
Conduct a comprehensive audit of this data to ascertain its type, source, and reasons for its collection. This process will give you a better insight into the mode of operation which your organization uses in processing data.
● Map Out Data Flow:
Following the first step, it’s crucial to map the flow of personal data within your organization. Take your time to note how data is being transferred within your organization. It’s a mode of collection, storage, and how it is shared with third parties.
Through this process, you can identify potential risks and loopholes in your organization’s data management procedures and devise effective strategies to address them.
● Review And Update Policies:
Having mapped the data flow, you should review your organization’s privacy policy and procedures. Invest sufficient time in reviewing the documentation process to ensure compliance with GDPR.
If they do not, ensure that you update them as required until they align with the principles and rights established by the regulation.
In addition, ensure that every policy in your organization reflects how personal data is controlled and its purpose.
● Seek Consent:
As part of complying with GDPR, obtaining explicit and informed consent from individuals concerning their data is crucial. This is to establish legal data processing.
Furthermore, review your consent technique to ensure they align with the GDPR standards. Utilize clear and concise consent data processing purposes that will let Individuals exercise their right to either give, withhold or revoke their consent at their convenience.
● Carry Out A Data Protection Impact Assessment(DPIA):
DPIA is a crucial step for high-risk data processing techniques under GDPR. It involves cross-checking and accessing potential risks and possible effects on individual privacy. It also deals with carrying out adequate measures to curb those risks.
Furthermore, after conducting these processes, endeavor to implement effective protection to keep personal data safe.
● Enact Security Procedures:
Data security plays a key role in GDPR compliance. Utilize and implement adequate technical procedures to protect personal data from unauthorized Individuals, cyber attacks, and loss.
This process may include the use of data masking software, staff training on data masking best practices, frequent data backups, etc.
Remember to regularly review your security procedures to stay ahead of potential threats.
● Provide Data Rights:
Countless rights are bestowed on Individuals by GDPR as regards their data. Now, endeavor to educate your employees and customers on their rights with GDPR, alongside the laid down processes and techniques by which data subject requests are handled efficiently.
These rights include:
- Right to access
- Right to rectification
- Right to erasure
- Right to restrict processing
- Right to data portability
- Right to object
- Rights linked with automated decision-making and profiling.
● Data Breach Response:
Planning for potential incidents doesn’t signify an expectation of their occurrence; rather, it ensures preparedness should they happen.
Therefore, carefully draft and prepare a vast data breach response in case of a data security incident. Ensure that the roles of your incident response team are clear and well understood.
In addition, develop processes for detecting, investigating, and bringing feedback on breaches. In case of a breach, promptly notify the relevant authorities and affected individuals. This will reduce the impact on Individuals and show adherence during a data breach.
● Appoint A Relevant Official:
Appointing a data protection officer (DPO) within your organization, or outsourcing this role, will ensure the monitoring and GDPR compliance of your organization’s data protection procedures.
Make sure that they are experts in the field, have data protection law, and can carry out their operations independently in your organization.
● Ensure Continuous Adherence:
The GDPR compliance process is not a one-time task but a repetitive and continuous process. Monitor and review your task data processing procedures frequently. Also, ensure that policies and procedures align with GDPR requirements.
Also, data termed a corporate asset can potentially boost and slow down operations based on how they are handled. It is favorable to stay updated with the changes in data protection law and adopt and adapt your protection processes as necessary.
Comply With GDPR
Data protection is essential in protecting your company’s intellectual properties and consumer details. By adhering to the GDPR-stipulated data protection steps, your organization can establish a robust data protection foundation. To maintain this strong foundation, you must remain vigilant for regulatory changes and adjustments and adapt accordingly.
