Data integrity is essential for any business regardless of size or sector. Being able to trust that your data is accurate, consistent, and reliable from point of origin to point of deletion will enhance your efficiency as a business and your customer’s trust. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an EU initiative that standardizes data protection requirements and very clearly outlines expectations for data integrity. Keep reading to learn how Cyber Security Hive’s GDPR compliance solutions can keep your data integrity intact.
GDPR went into effect in 2018 and was designed to protect personal data as well as privacy of EU citizens. Some key components of GDPR include:
Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency
Purpose limitation
Data minimization
Accuracy
Storage limitation
Integrity and confidentiality
Individuals impacted by GDPR are also provided with the following rights:
Right to be informed
Right of access
Right to rectification
Right to erasure
Right to restriction of processing
Right to data portability
Businesses can be fined up to millions of dollars for GDPR non-compliance. In addition to monetary loss, brand reputation can be damaged.
Data integrity ensures data is accurate and consistent throughout the entire lifecycle of that data. This includes the processes of creation, storage, processing, and deletion. Strong data integrity allows your business to operate more effectively, make confident business decisions, stay compliant with regulations, and ensure your customers you can be trusted with their data. Weak data integrity can result in monetary loss, regulatory fines, and lack of trust with customers.
You know that joke about monkeys with typewriters eventually writing the great American novel? With integrity-compromised data, businesses are just monkeys frantically hammering away at their keyboards hoping to not lose everything. If your data isn’t accurate, your business decisions won’t be either. This can result in not having enough money to operate, bad financial decisions, and overall loss of business. Trust is hard to build but easy to lose. Data breaches and cyberattacks are all over the news. Customers are going to be skeptical about giving their information to your business. Show your customers that you take protecting the integrity of their data seriously and they will trust you.
When you work with data that is a matter of life and death, you have an increased responsibility to maintain data integrity at all costs. Medical information is one of these types of data. Incorrect patient data can cause wrong treatment options to be given. Banking information is another type of critical data. Inaccurate data can cause major issues with reporting, risk assessment, and compliance. Legal data is the third example we will highlight. Again, errors in this type of data can be fatal.
Just like there are many reasons to keep data trustworthy and reliable, there are multiple ways that data can be corrupted or broken. Let’s talk about a few of those challenges below.
Malware, ransomware, phishing, and hacking are obvious threats to data integrity. If someone accesses your data without authorization, they can make changes or encrypt it from you. Once data has been breached, even if you recover it, there is no guarantee that it will be intact.
Humans make mistakes. Typing errors, accidental deletion, and misconfigured databases are just a few ways that humans can compromise data integrity.
Databases can become corrupted, hard drives can crash, and CPUs can fry due to age or external sources. Again, backups and redundancy are your friends but they aren’t always 100% bulletproof.
DDoS attacks can take your systems offline by overwhelming your server with traffic. Once your systems go down, data can easily be corrupted or lost.
If the proper access controls or authentication methods are not in place, data will be easier to compromise. Once compromised, poor training and data handling can spread corrupt data to other systems.
Cyber Security Hive understands that no two businesses are alike. While you may have similar concerns as your competitors, your day-to-day operations are different. Our GDPR compliance solutions are customized to your business and your needs while ensuring data integrity.
GDPR requires organizations to perform DPIAs when data processing may impact the rights and freedoms of consumers. Our experts will perform comprehensive DPIAs to learn how your personal data is collected, stored, processed, and secured. We will then make recommendations to reduce risk and align data handling processes with GDPR requirements.
We will perform a readiness assessment to figure out where your data protection strengths and weaknesses are. We will review current policies, processes, and technology and make recommendations on where to improve.
Effective policies are crucial to staying GDPR compliant. We will work with you to design and implement policies tailored to your business that covers GDPR topics like access control, data retention, breach response, and data subject access requests.
Cyber Security Hive can provide your business with the tools needed to process data subject requests for access to their data, rectification, erasure, restriction, and portability.
If your business is the victim of a breach, it can be financially crippling. Not only do you have to deal with the breach itself, but you’re required to notify affected parties which increases negative brand exposure. We can help you develop an incident response plan, perform incident response drills, and provide 24/7 support when an incident occurs. Our goal is to help you contain breaches and notify parties quickly to reduce costs and business impact.
Cyber Security Hive also offers continuous monitoring, periodic audits, and regulatory updates to ensure you stay compliant as GDPR updates.
Encrypting your data in transit and at rest is one of the best ways to maintain confidentiality and integrity. Encryption will ensure that someone can’t modify your data without authorization.
Restrict data access to areas of your building and limit who has access to certain data. Cybersecurity is more than just a software issue.
Limit who has access to what data using the principle of least privilege. This principle provides users with the least amount of access they need to do their jobs. In addition to access controls, implement multi-factor authentication.
Regular internal and external audits are a great way to check the effectiveness of your current cybersecurity measures. Automated tools can monitor your systems 24/7 and alert you at the first sign of suspicious behavior.
Data validation and QA checks should be integrated throughout the data lifecycle. There are many ways to implement validation and QA checks to ensure that errors, inconsistencies, or unauthorized changes are caught.
Back-up and contingency plans don’t eliminate your risk, but they’ll help your business recover if an incident does occur. Minimize disruptions, downtime, and monetary loss.
Every Cyber Security Hive GDPR compliance implementation starts with a thorough risk assessment and audit of how data flows through your business. Identifying vulnerabilities will help us recommend solutions that improve data integrity.
Data integrity and GDPR don’t have to be difficult. Cyber Security Hive has you (and your data) covered with our GDPR compliance solutions. Partner with Cyber Security Hive and keep your data safe and secure while staying ahead of compliance regulations.