North Carolina is not new to security breaches. As of July 2019, the state has reported a total of 6,500 breaches, impacting over 16 million North Carolina consumers. The Old North State has also taken steps to intensify guidelines on cybersecurity and data breach notification to further protect consumer data. So if you’re running a business in North Carolina but haven’t taken data security seriously, it’s high time that you do.
What is data security?
Data security is the totality of standards, processes, and technologies that protect data from intentional or accidental modification, destruction, or disclosure. Data security includes, but is not limited to, data encryption, hashing, password management, and tokenization. It also covers the best practices and techniques organizations employ to safeguard data, monitor suspicious activity, and limit unauthorized access.
Why should you be concerned about data security?
Regardless of size or industry, every enterprise must protect its data at all costs because cybercriminals will stop at nothing to get a hold of customer and business information. Cyberattackers will use sophisticated technology, social engineering schemes, and everything in between to infiltrate your network and steal, modify, or restrict access to your data.
Cybercriminals infiltrating your systems is never good news. A data breach can cost you your customers, your reputation, and ultimately, your business. On top of these, legal fees and noncompliance fines can result in astronomical expenses. You can avoid all these troubles by employing a cybersecurity by design approach to data security.
Understanding cybersecurity by design
Cybersecurity by design is the practice of putting cybersecurity at the center of the development process and making it a guiding principle of any project right from the initial stages.
You can build a website first, then add cybersecurity measures afterward. However, implementing cybersecurity as an afterthought can lead to ineffective solutions, as cybercriminals will proactively attack every potential entry point to your system.
It might also be too late. You never know when cybercriminals would target your website, and when they do, you need to act fast. Oftentimes, by the time you find cybersecurity solutions that can mitigate the effects of the breach, the damage is already irreversible.
On the other hand, implementing a cybersecurity by design approach right from the start will prevent such problems. It will allow you to automate defense protocols and protect the information sent to and received by your website, such as customer personal information and payment details. Thwarting cyberattacks will be easy because your website was built to withstand them.
The benefits of implementing cybersecurity by design approach to data security
Data protection may be the prime benefit of implementing cybersecurity by design, but it’s not its only advantage. Apply the cybersecurity by design approach to data security to gain the following benefits:
- Increased customer confidence – Customers will deeply trust a business that can effectively protect its systems against all kinds of cyberattacks. What’s more, if you’re able to prove that your business is data breach-proof, you can attract clients who value their data’s protection above all else.
- More efficient systems – If you implement cybersecurity by design in every business project you undertake, you can guarantee that your systems will be protected 24/7/365. You won’t need to worry about cybersecurity incidents and their resulting downtime, allowing you to work optimally and serve customers better.
- Improved productivity – Working with efficient systems maximizes employee output. When your workforce doesn’t have to deal with downtime or malware that can slow down computers to a crawl, they can deliver accurate and on-time results.
Cybersecurity is nonnegotiable in running a modern business, so partner with a business technology specialist that will give you seven layers of security: SpectrumWise. Never worry about data breaches again. Discover how by consulting with our experts today.
