How to ensure data security

The security of private and business data is becoming increasingly important, because crime is shifting more and more to the Internet. Data security is not only concerned with the protection of sensitive data, but generally with the security of all company data. Companies have various options here for optimizing protection and security.

Access authorizations

An important component of data security is the control of access authorizations. Many systems already offer the possibility of simple restrictions, such as simply releasing folders for certain actions. However, companies cannot avoid using suitable tools to protect data.

This allows access and usage rights to be distributed not only for folders, but even for individual files or areas of data collections. It is particularly important that these rights are also checked regularly. It happens again and again that accounts of terminated employees were not deactivated and that these then caused considerable damage in the company.

Versioning

Data security is also no longer guaranteed when working with an outdated database. Two factors are usually responsible for this, a lack of shared storage space and no versioning as to when a document was edited.

Thanks to cloud storage, at least the first problem is easy to fix. When it comes to versioning, there is suitable software that documents who made which changes and when. The advantage is that they not only show who worked on it, but also which changes were made. This is indispensable for documents that are jointly edited by a team, but also for files that are only used by one person, it is often helpful to be able to track how a document has developed.

Create backups

In the past, copies of all documents were made, but today the back-ups of data carriers that must be made at regular intervals. This includes not only data carriers in the company, but also servers that are used, for example. Back-ups are essential for the Server data recovery indispensable, because a loss can occur, for example, due to hacker attacks or other problems. If a back-up is available, data loss is minimal and downtimes can also be kept low.

Many companies ask themselves how often it makes sense to back up server data. This can only ever be answered individually. The higher the frequency of use, the more frequently backups must be made. For small and medium-sized companies, a daily back-up is usually sufficient. Companies that have hundreds of customer orders a day, however, should consider perhaps making a back-up every few hours.

The back-ups should be kept for some time. Many companies even keep the back-ups for up to a year. The reason for this is that if data is damaged by viruses, for example, it often takes some time before this becomes apparent. The damaged data is then often copied along with the backups. If there is then no longer a back-up that shows a data stock before damage, such information can usually no longer be restored.

Physical security

The physical security of data carriers also wanted to be considered in data security. Similar to access to files, for example, access to the server room should also be protected with authorizations. In addition, the care and storage of data carriers are also an important factor. A back-up is useless if it is on a data carrier that has been exposed to excessive heat due to incorrect storage, for example, and has thus become unusable.

In this case, companies that work largely paperless are also subject to legal regulations that govern how data carriers must be stored in order to meet the retention requirement.

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