How to Establish Security Measures to Protect Data

How to setup data protection security measures for your business

When it comes to business, it’s not just ‘best practices’ or ‘doing the right thing’ that means you need to make effort to secure personal data – the GDPR (which applies the UK and the EU) says you must. And we all know your business needs to follow GDPR, otherwise you’re in-line for severe fines and ruinous reputational damage.

Practically every business processes personal data under GDPR – that’s increasingly what business is – and ‘processing personal data in a secure manner’ is a key principle of the GDPR. Security measures are required to protect the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (known as CIA) of personal data.

All businesses should consider their unique threat profile and set security measures that are commensurate to their risk level. This doesn’t mean ‘doing the bare minimum – far from it – it means ‘make sure your security measures will actually be effective’. Inadequate security measures lead to breaches, and as mentioned above, that leads to fines and reputational damage – not to mention the harm to data subjects themselves.

If you’re needing help implementing security controls for data protection, your best bet is to get some help. Lean on support from a trusted GDPR compliant security partner and use their skill and experience to make your journey to GDPR compliance as painless as possible. After all, they’ve seen all the challenges facing a range of businesses and already have the answers. But for businesses who want to DIY it, here are some top tips:

• Implement an access controls policy and procedure

  Ensuring restricted controls are in place for only authorised personnel

• Mandate strong, unique passwords everywhere

  Passwords are often your first line of cyber defence

• Install anti-virus software and keep it updated

  Ensure it’s installed on ALL devices that hold corporate data – even BYOD devices

• Use firewalls

  Attacks mostly come from the outside, so good network security is a no-brainer

• Encrypt data at rest and in transit

  It’s less impactful if a hacker gets their hands on data that’s been properly encrypted, as they won’t be able to read it

• Regular vulnerability testing

  To fix your security flaws you first have to find them – and that’s best done with a penetration test

• Periodic reviews

  Periodically evaluating the effectiveness of your technical and organisational measures is vital for ensuring the on-going security of the data processing

In late 2020, Ticketmaster UK was fined by the ICO following a cyberattack on a chat bot installed on their online payment page. Malicious code was entered into the JavaScript, resulting in a data breach. Names, payment card numbers, expiry dates and CVV numbers (which should never be stored) were breached, potentially impacting 9.4 million of Ticketmaster’s customers across Europe (including 1.5million in the UK).

The breach was a direct result of Ticketmaster not assessing the security risks of implementing a chatbot on their payment page. Lessons learned:

• Assess and document all risks associated to any changes in technology.

• Test for vulnerabilities in your systems with regular penetration tests

• Carry out supplier due-diligence with all third party suppliers. Data controllers will be held accountable for their negligence.