How vulnerable is your organization to a data breach by an insider with access to your network? The number of such attacks has been on the rise, and according to a recent report by CA Technologies, 90% of organizations feel that they are vulnerable.
As always prevention is far better than cure, and you should not wait for a breach before you scramble to take action. Instead you should take proactive measures to protect your company’s data against insider breaches – and these 6 important tips should help you to do that in 2019:
- Comply with regulations and security standards – fully
Compliance with key regulations such as the EU’s GDPR legislation and the medical sector’s HIPAA guidelines is about more than just following the letter of the law. It is the spirit behind them that you should take on board, and implement them fully to make sure your data privacy and protection is up to standard.
- Monitor employee activity for suspicious behavior
Comprehensive employee monitoring software is the place to start if you want to identify suspicious behaviour, and WorkExaminer can fit those shoes perfectly. It will let you track what users are doing at any given point in time, monitor emails, IM chats, online activity, and more.
- Continually assess risk and identify vulnerabilities
Every aspect of your organization should be continually evaluated to assess the risk of a data breach and identify potential vulnerabilities in its existing security measures. The data from WorkExaminer can help and provide you with solid numbers regarding how data is being accessed, and who is accessing it.
- Save important data for forensics
Try to save any important monitoring data so that in the event of a breach you can identify what happened more easily. In WorkExaminer you’ll have many ways in which to save monitoring data, including by capturing keystrokes or screenshots, or via the detailed interactive reports that are provided.
- Track suspicious data transfers
Some data breaches are as simple as an employee emailing out sensitive information, or transferring it to external storage. It is important that access to these potential data threats is limited and tracked using WorkExaminer. It will enable you to know when data is being copied or transferred so that action can be taken quickly.
- Restrict access and monitor third-party vendors
Third-party vendors often requires access to data – but that creates a potential security risk. To limit it you should restrict the access they have to only the data they need for the project they’re working on. Additionally WorkExaminer should be used to monitor their behavior closely so that access can be revoked quickly at the first sign of trouble.
Implementing the tips listed above should help you to bolster your company’s protection against insider breaches. Keep in mind however that data protection is an ongoing and constantly evolving field, and you need to stay vigilant and continually improve your security in order to reduce how vulnerable you are.
