What is a Data Breach & How to Secure Your Data

Written by Omar Rbati | Aug 11, 2023 7:15:58 PM

Businesses must be proactive in safeguarding their sensitive data. Every piece of information shared online risks falling into the hands of hackers, identity thieves and unauthorized third parties. Worldwide cybercrime costs are estimated to hit $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. Privacy risk management policies help protect the personal data of customers and employees. There are several risks with techniques and technology to overcome them.

One of the key privacy risks is data overexposure, which occurs when personal data is accessed or disclosed by unauthorized parties, either intentionally or accidentally. Data overexposure can result in reputational damage, legal liability, regulatory fines, and loss of trust. Various techniques secure overexposed data to mitigate this risk, such as encryption, access control, auditing, and alerting. It is also important to monitor and respond to any data breaches or incidents that may occur.

Data transfers are another risk and involve moving personal data from one location to another, either within or outside the organization. Data transfers can pose privacy challenges, especially when they cross different jurisdictions or regions with different privacy laws and regulations. To prevent unauthorized or unlawful data transfers, policies and procedures can ensure compliance with applicable laws and contractual obligations. Technologies that enable secure and transparent data transfers, such as data classification, data loss prevention, and data protection impact assessments, are also required.

The third privacy risk, data minimization, means reducing personal data collected, stored, and processed to the minimum necessary for legitimate purposes. Data minimization helps respect our customers' and employees' privacy rights and preferences and reduces the costs and complexity of managing personal data. Find and delete unused personal data, such as retention policies, deletion requests, and automated deletion processes, to achieve data minimization. Educate employees and customers on the importance of data minimization and how to exercise their privacy choices.

Besides these three main privacy risks, there are other privacy risks that you may encounter in your organization. Some examples are:

Data quality refers to the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of personal data. Poor data quality can lead to errors, inefficiencies, and poor decision-making. To ensure data quality, verify the sources and validity of personal data, update and correct personal data regularly, and avoid duplication or inconsistency of personal data.

Data security protects personal data from unauthorized access, modification, or destruction. Cyberattacks, human errors, or natural disasters can compromise data security. To enhance data security, you should implement technical and organizational measures to prevent, detect, and respond to security incidents, such as firewalls, antivirus software, encryption keys, backup systems, security policies, and training.

Data ethics is the responsible and ethical use of personal data for fair and lawful purposes. Data ethics can be violated by misuse or abuse of personal data, such as discrimination, manipulation, or deception. To uphold data ethics, respect the rights and interests of your customers and employees, obtain their consent and inform them of how you use their data, and avoid any harmful or unlawful outcomes from the use of personal data.

Risk Management With Microsoft Priva

To alleviate these risks, Microsoft launched Priva, a new service to control data and its use. Microsoft Priva is a comprehensive privacy management solution that helps organizations of all sizes and industries safeguard their data, comply with privacy regulations, and handle subject rights requests confidently, efficiently and effectively.

With Microsoft Priva, you can:

Choose who can access your data and for what purpose
Set expiration dates and permissions for your data
Encrypt your data with state-of-the-art technology
Monitor and audit your data activity and usage
Delete your data permanently from the cloud when you want

Microsoft Priva enables users to:

Store, process, and dispose of personal information in compliance with local and global regulations. Manage your personal data lifecycle with best practices and tools to store, process, and dispose of personal information securely and competently.
Assess and resolve privacy risks like data hoarding, transfers, and oversharing. Identify and address privacy risks such as data hoarding, transfers, and oversharing with automated risk assessments, recommendations, and remediation actions.
Process data subject requests and subject rights requests at scale with automated data discovery, conflict detection, in-place review, and secure collaboration. Streamline your subject rights requests process with automatic data discovery, conflict detection, in-place review, and secure collaboration features that enable you to respond to requests quickly and accurately.
Increase awareness of privacy requirements and risks with privacy training and automated reminders to review and delete obsolete items. Educate employees on privacy requirements and risks with privacy training modules and automatic reminders to review and delete obsolete items.
Identify personal data and critical privacy risks, automate risk mitigation, and empower employees to make intelligent data handling decisions.

Wrapping Up

Microsoft Priva is more than just a privacy management solution. It empowers you to make intelligent data-handling decisions, build trust with customers and stakeholders, and achieve your privacy goals without compromising your personal information. Microsoft Priva is designed to work seamlessly with your existing Microsoft products and services, such as SharePoint, Windows, Office, Outlook, OneDrive, and more. You can also integrate Microsoft Priva with other platforms and applications that you use regularly, such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, and more.

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