Whether accidental or targeted, insider threats are recognized as one of the root causes of data breaches. Read our tips for preventing insider threats and keeping your organization secure.
Data leakage is a term we hear about all the time. But what does data leakage mean? Find here answers to several key questions about data leaks, and what can be done to prevent them.
Data leakage is a term we hear about all the time but what does it mean? A data leak is when data is remitted from within an organization to an unauthorized user or location. In cybersecurity there is an old saying: you cannot secure what you do not know exists. In this blog entry, we will provide a data leakage definition, answer several key questions about data leaks, provide some examples of what can be done to prevent them, and more.
A data leak is when data is remitted from within an organization to an unauthorized user or location.
There are many ways that data can be exfiltrated from an organization, but here are the four most common routes:
The answer is rather simple, if we try to think like the attacker, we can know what to do to prevent data leakage. Let’s go through some examples from question number one:
Sadly, there are many to choose from. Data leaks are so common because they revolve around the four most common types of attacks highlighted earlier. One example is Oklahoma Student Loan Authority and EdFinancial disclosing that 2.5 million individuals who took out student loans with them had their personal data exposed, as part of a breach of a third-party organization that had access to both organization’s databases.
In light of the breach, borrowers were warned that their full names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and, critically, social security numbers may have been leaked.
This data breach bears a sobering reminder: Even if an organization figures out how to secure all of its internal resources, people, and systems, it also needs to manage identities and access rights from third parties.
These third parties are still trusted insiders and should be treated as if they are employees. Further precautions must be taken to ensure that once third-party contracts expire, that access is swiftly removed.
Another example related to data leaks is the information that the cosmetics giant, Sephora, has settled with the state of California to pay $1.2 million for selling customer data without telling them. This type of situation should be remedied within corporate policy to not do anything unruly with customers, or any sensitive data.
However, the real lesson learned here is the importance of organizational reputation, and how it may affect where consumers choose to trust with their business, and also that compliance mandates continue to become more relevant and important for organizations to follow.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind to help simplify managing and governing third-parties that require access to your environments.
Data leak prevention is a comprehensive approach to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information by implementing measures such as monitoring, policy enforcement, and user education within and outside an organization. Preventing data leakage is no small feat, but with sensible cybersecurity practices, and a commitment to keep attackers at bay, damage can be mitigated. At the core of the issue is enabling strong identity security and ensuring that only the right people have access to your organization’s most critical data.
By understanding what a data leak is, how they happen, and precautionary measures that your organization can take to prevent a data breach, you can successfully fortify your organization’s defences and avoid the legal and reputational complications that come with a data leak. By taking the necessary cybersecurity measures like proper role based access control and implementing policies for data loss prevention to track when data access is out of band, your organization will be stronger, safer, and more secure.
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Whether accidental or targeted, insider threats are recognized as one of the root causes of data breaches. Read our tips for preventing insider threats and keeping your organization secure.
Learn how modern identity governance fosters least privilege and helps accelerate the journey to the mature Zero-Trust program that most organizations aspire to complete.
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