Don’t Let Insiders Steal Data from Under Your Nose

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Personal customer data, financial records, and confidential business information are core assets for any business in this digital landscape. Protection of these assets is most important than ever to any business’s endurance and success, whether big or small. Business information and financial records protect the personal data of customers and become important to enterprises and companies around the globe. They are responsible for protecting data both legally and at consumers’ demand, as data theft is a growing concern in the United States and across the globe.

What is Data Theft?

Data theft can be explained as the act of stealing data and information stored on business computers, corporate databases, devices, and servers. Malicious persons steal confidential and sensitive business data intending to either obtain sensitive business details to steal business money/resources or harm the repute or a business in the industry. Data can include sensitive business details, financial records, personal details of customers, health records, digital assets like a business website, etc. Corporate data theft is significant jeopardy for companies of all sizes and can occur both inside and outside an organization.

Data theft can be done both intentionally and unintentionally. Even people who steal sensitive business details or information unintentionally really don’t know about the nature and value of the stolen information. Insider data thefts are common, and they are more appalling than outsider theft attacks. Most of the insider data leaks are unintentional and occur through unawareness or by accident.

Steal Data

Why you should Worry about Insider Data Theft?

People working within the organization or company are aware of all the ins and out of the business network. This is why it is a lot easier for them to plan and apply several insider approaches to steal sensitive business details and customer information without anyone even noticing.

Insider data theft threats are not just a problem for giant organizations. In contrast, small businesses and startups are becoming easier victims of hackers and cybercriminals are small businesses do not have enough resources and solutions to prevent such terrible threats. It is also true that most of the MSBs don’t make insider attacks a focus as they don’t think they are the worthy target for criminals. Maybe they cannot see the value of business data or think data theft wouldn’t happen to them. But this is not so true, and their sensitive information and customer data can be compromised at any time that can cost millions of dollars. Whether you are using a Windows file server or storing business data incorporated in computers, you must take the necessary steps to prevent insiders from stealing corporate data either on-purpose or accidentally.

Steps to Prevent Insider Data Theft Effectively

There are numerous ways insiders steal data from under your nose, either on purpose or otherwise. Here are some proven steps you can take on to prevent the risks of your precious business data being stolen by insiders.

Evaluate and classify all data and systems!

You can start by understanding what assets, devices, and information are most valuable and are most likely targeted by an insider actor. Do this by creating a list of the most important systems or devices and utilize it to make an effective data protection governance policy. Classify business details and data systems based on their value and make necessary changes in the list to stay on top of things.

Monitor user activity!

Keeping an eagle’s eye on your workers and recording their activities within your business network is the best way to find out what exactly has happened if a data theft or cybersecurity incident happens. For this purpose, you can employ smart solutions like Triofox that provide secure and remote access to business data and offer greater protection. Such solutions monitor user activities and disable the user’s access to business data when there is something beyond normal. Moreover, they also send alerts and notifications to the IT department to take appropriate actions before something worst happens.

Invest in data loss prevention systems and tools!

It is not that sporadic for workers to steal or merely delete valuable corporate data, either on purpose or unintentionally. This is where investing in data loss prevention systems and tools comes into play and can be useful to restore compromised or stolen corporate data. In this way, you can quickly restore or recover data compromised via insider threats to keep business operations running smoothly.

Limit privileged access!

Employees with higher access privileges to business data servers are the ones that you need to be extra careful about. Open accounts with higher access privileges are open the door to the most critical and sensitive business details in your organization. Both malicious insiders and intruders can take benefit from such accounts to steal business data away. You can prevent insider data theft attacks by limiting privileged access to exactly what users need to perform their duties or required actions. Don’t allow them to use their accounts and access non-job-related activities. Turning multi-factor authentication on is another best way to make sure no unauthorized access and use sensitive business data.

Make your employees feel delighted!

Loyal and hardworking employees are one of the most valuable assets of any business. You buy their time when assigning some tasks to them, but don’t buy their souls. Try your best to recognize their efforts and earn loyalty. Respect everyone’s uniqueness and the experience they bring to your organization. Respect your employees to respect your business and its policies to keep business operations running smoothly without creating interruptions like insider data theft. Investing in employee training is another great way to reduce business data risks being stolen by insider attacks.

Final thoughts!

Since trusting workers and other business entities is important, businesses should always tackle insider data theft incidents. Increasing awareness about business data security and common security threats as a part of your company culture is also a great way to protect a business from costly data theft. Right after doing anything important to keep corporate data and information protected, get a professional to see just how secure your business data is.

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