Data protection is important, since it prevents the information of an organization from fraudulent activities, hacking, phishing, and identity theft. Any organization that wants to work effectively needs to ensure the safety of their information by implementing a data protection plan.

As the amount of data stored and created increases, so does the importance of data protection. Data breaches and cyberattacks can cause devastating damages. Organizations need to proactively protect their data and regularly update their protective measures.

Ultimately, the key principle and importance of data protection is safeguarding and protecting data from different threats and under different circumstances. The following article elaborates more on data protection and its importance.

Key Elements of Data Protection

One very important data protection model is the CIA triad, where the three letters of the name represent the three elements of data protection: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. This model was developed to help individuals and organizations develop a holistic approach to data protection. The three elements are defined as follows:

• Confidentiality: The data is retrieved only by authorized operators with appropriate credentials.
• Integrity: All the data stored within an organization is reliable, precise, and not subject to any unjustified changes.
• Availability: The data stored is safely and readily available whenever needed.

The Type of Data That Requires Protection

Vital information of customers, such as names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, health information, or bank details, are all data that should be carefully stored and protected. Data protection gains special importance when the information concerns customers. If such information gets in the wrong hands, it can compromise people’s safety in many forms, including personal integrity, physical safety, and financial security. Stolen information can also be used to create fake profiles and commit fraud.

The implementation of a privacy information management system (PIMS) based on the requirements and guidance of ISO/IEC 27701 allows organizations to assess, treat, and reduce risks associated with the collection, maintenance, and processing of personal information.

If you wish to pursue a career in assisting organizations in this field, PECB offers a set of ISO/IEC 27701 training courses that provide the skills, methods, and tools needed to maintain a PIMS in compliance with ISO/IEC 27701.

Data Protection Best Practices

There are different data protection management practices. Some of the most commonly used include:

• Data loss prevention (DLP): A set of tools and processes used to secure data from theft, loss, misuse, deletion, or other illegal or inappropriate forms of contact
• Firewalls: Tools used for monitoring and filtering the network traffic to ensure data is transferred or accessed only by authorized users
• Encryption: Altering the content of data based on an algorithm that can be reversed only with the right encryption password or key.
  Encryption protects data even if it gets stolen, since the data would be unreadable.
• Data erasure: Deleting data that is no longer needed or relevant
  This is also a requirement of the GDPR.
• Data resiliency: Building resiliency systems within the software and hardware of an organization’s system to ensure the security in case of natural disasters or power outages
• Data backups: A plan to securely back up data in case of failure or breach
  Such backup plans may include a separate physical disk or cloud.

Another important certification form is that related to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). PECB offers GDPR training courses that provide the knowledge, tools, and methods needed to comply with the GDPR requirements. This also increases customer trust and provides a competitive edge. PECB’s data protection certification will help you to protect an organization’s reputation, facilitate data access, ensure a stronger rule enforcement, enable adequate access control, minimize security breaches, attract new customers and keep the existing ones, and so on.

Data Protection Framework

As the number of organizations that process the personally identifiable information (PII) increases, so does the need for such organizations to ensure the safety and privacy of data. PECB offers ISO/IEC 29100 training and certification that presents best practices related to the protection of the PII.

It is essential for organizations to implement a data protection framework that provides guidance on the protection of PII. The framework will help an organization to ensure that all data stored in their servers is protected and reasonably used. It will also give the organization guidance and structure on any changes needed and the specific use of such changes.

Additionally, using a well-known data protection framework may decrease the risk of incidents, and regulators may have greater effort to protect the data in such cases. A data protection framework may also adapt to meet the evolving data protection requirements, while data protection laws may be subject to changes. Data protection standards may help you and your organization to better manage your customer’s data.

About the author: 

Vesa Hyseni is a Senior Content and Campaigns Specialist at PECB. She is responsible for creating up-to-date content, conducting market research, and providing insights about ISO standards. For any questions, feel free to reach out to her at support@pecb.com.