The Ways to Keep Sensitive Data Safe

Data is one of the fundamental concepts that have been included in every aspect of the life of the third wave (network) community by technological developments in digital transformation. Establishing the data stack management and safety has become an important part of running businesses and is highly critical for creating sustainable business models.

At this point, it is imperative to highlight that as the big data of businesses expand, so do the data masses that must be kept safe, since the lack of a hassle-free IT infrastructure for data safety may cause poor corporate image and serious financial loss.

The Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021 prepared by IBM offers striking answers regarding the question, "why is it important to keep sensitive data safe?" Based on the report, the total loss of business originating from data breaches in 2021 increased by 38% based on 2020, and losses increased from 1.52 million dollars to 1.59 million dollars.

On the other hand, the same report shows that losses due to cyber threats caused by compromised identity data account for 20% of the losses. So, what can be done to establish an enhanced cyber security network in the business world where keeping sensitive data safe is important? Let's answer this step by step.

Step 1: Identification of Sensitive Data

Identifying sensitive data is prominent as a first step to protect big data. To successfully identify the critical data stacks, you need this four basic information items:

• Physical and virtual servers where the sensitive data is stored
• Applications, users, and systems accessing sensitive data
• Users that must/must not have access to sensitive data
• Determining whether the sensitive data is under risk

You can access the solutions you need for this identification and assessment process with the help of our Single Connect Privileged Access Management solution.

For instance, by utilizing the Database Access Manager module, you can supervise all users, even database managers, that have access to critical data in your IT infrastructure and control all access interactions. The Database Access Manager module serves as a strong shield to prevent breaches originating from users with privileged access.

Step 2: Monitoring Big Data Access

The second step consists of monitoring all operations in the database in real-time. Since privileged users have direct access to the data in servers, focusing on the employees in this group may facilitate the steps of the Privileged Access Management steps in full.

The Privileged Session Manager module of Single Connect helps you monitor the operations of authorized accounts. It creates a full monitoring process via the statistics, video records, and logs collected from the users that have access to critical data fields.

Therefore, the entirety of the operations regarding privileged access is recorded. The Privileged Session Manager module offers a real central solution and thus effectively removes potential mix-ups that may be experienced regarding access management. Since all privileged operations regarding access requests and movements can be monitored with the Privileged Session Manager, you may detect several confusing processes beforehand and effectively control the sessions in the network.

Step 3: Protection Against Cyber Threats

The Identifying sensitive data and monitoring phases will help you to access detailed information regarding possible cyber threats and breaches. However, as a second step, you must act to protect your business against cyber threats. In this phase, you can adopt four different approaches based on the source of the threat and the type of data.

• Prevent access to critical data: The Privileged Task Automation module of Single Connect allows you to regulate the workflows in the network thanks to its dynamically customized and expandable script sets. The module ensures automatic completion of daily recurring workflows and minimizes user errors that can cause breaches in data access.
• Mask data: Sensitive data should be replaced with fictional data and masked to control access to critical data. While masking data, make sure that the reference and statistical integrity are preserved. With this goal, the Dynamic Data Masking module of Single Connect does not display the actual sensitive data to privileged users while accessing the database, but rather offers masked and fictional realistic data.
• Cease the operations of risky users: You may quarantine the users that wish to access data outside their level of access without disabling or preventing authorized operations of the accounts in question and thus facilitate your data protection efforts.
• Implement preventive actions: By sending additional warnings to establish access security, you can trigger a series of events that may help implement preventive actions. For instance, by adopting solutions such as the Dynamic Password Controller with its password vault, you can protect the passwords of privileged accounts with multi-layered and multi-factor authentication security measures and control privileged access to sensitive data.

If you want to establish an end-to-end data security framework, follow one of the practical methods of keeping sensitive data safe and review the Magic Quadrant for PAM report issued by Gartner featuring our Single Connect product as one of the most advanced PAM solutions in the world.

To learn more about our cyber security applications and their added value to the finance, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, and public sectors, contact our team of experts, whom will be more than happy to answer your questions.