Data security breaches are an unfortunate feature of modern business. Business owners ignore the risks at their peril. Cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated and harder to prevent. Nearly every enterprise has some sort of sensitive information that they do not want to be stolen or accessed without authority.

Data breaches are costly, and not just in terms of finances. They can seriously damage your reputation. There could even be legal implications. There are several things that you can do to protect your assets and your clients’ data. Here we look at some essential ways to boost your business’s data security.

Redundancy and Resilience

According to the National Cyber Security Centre, backing up is an essential part of security. Backing up the components needed to keep critical functions running is called redundancy. Resilience refers to how well the system can recover after an attack. Both are critical parts of data safety.

Hardening Systems

The services provided by a data analysis company such as those detailed at https://shepper.com can help you identify how to harden your systems. Locations where sensitive data is held should be identified. Anything that is not needed for you to operate should be turned off. You may need to apply filters or restrict access to specific areas of your systems. Bear in mind that web servers are popular targets for attackers.

Carry Out Penetration Tests

You cannot be sure how effective your protection systems are until someone tries to penetrate them. There are several vulnerability scanning tools such as OpenVAS that you can use. They probe your systems for vulnerabilities and open ports. All aspects need to be tested, including the system, network and online apps. Whilst the main aim is to identify security flaws, you can also review your compliance and security awareness policies at the same time.

Protection of Endpoints

Endpoints are very vulnerable and are constantly under attack. Sadly, endpoint security breaches are common. However, if proper infrastructure is in place, they can be avoided. Unauthorised software and sophisticated malware are particular concerns.

Related: Backups vs cloud storage

Protecting every device on the network

Data security is not just about servers and backups. Every device that connects to your network is a possible way in: laptops and phones, but also printers, card terminals, security cameras and guest wi-fi. These are known as endpoints, and the more of them there are, and the more places they connect from, the larger the risk. A good first step is simply listing every device that can access company systems.

Traditional antivirus works by recognising known threats, which leaves a gap when a new type of malware appears. Modern endpoint protection adds behaviour-based detection, watching for activity that looks unusual, such as a program suddenly encrypting files, and can isolate a device before an attack spreads. The trade-off is false alarms, as some malicious software deliberately imitates normal programs and some legitimate tools behave oddly, so the system needs tuning and someone to review its alerts. Choose security products on proven performance rather than price alone.