For several reasons, companies need to collect personal data from customers or users. However, to avoid problems during this information’s treatment (collection, storage, and processing), they need to understand what data security is.
Once collected, personal data may be illegally modified during the storage stage, for example, and may be erased, corrupted, leaked, and even used unlawfully.
Faced with these and other equally problematic scenarios that will be addressed in this context, organizations must know what data security is, what the law says about it and what actions they must take to carry out data processing with secrecy and security.
Data security, also known as information security, is a set of measures aimed at protecting personal data collected by a company.
Some of these measures are data encryption, a process that transforms data into codes to make them more secure, and data masking, a security technique that scrambles (masks) data to create an inauthentic copy for various non-production purposes, such as analysis or testing.
Data security has become imperative in recent years as the amount of personal information on the internet has dramatically increased. After all, the more data available, the greater the chances of them being stolen and used in fraud, for example.
To avoid these problems, however, companies began to treat such personal information more securely through actions such as using cloud software and periodically making backups.
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Traditionally, data security consisted of only three pillars, known by the acronym CID: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. However, it became necessary to adopt other posts to ensure broader information security. Check them out below.
To protect data, this pillar ensures that they travel in complete secrecy. Companies take specific steps to ensure this, such as encrypting data and restricting who can and cannot access it.
Ensures that the collected data comes from an authentic and reliable source. To attest to the integrity of information, for example, it is necessary to keep a record of the author of the data.
The function of this pillar is to ensure that the collected data does not suffer any modifications during traffic, either in storage or processing. This ensures that they remain intact, with their original characteristics.
The availability pillar ensures users that their collected data will always be available to access when they need it. The company makes this access possible through software, hardware, and connections.
Also known as “non-repudiation,” this pillar ensures the data’s authenticity. In this way, the user cannot deny that he was the one who provided specific information.
The pillar of compliance exists so that processes during data processing comply with Brazilian law, following the rules regulated by the LGPD.
One of the main objectives for applying data security is to leave information protected against theft and unauthorized alteration.
Users who have their data leaked, such as their CPF or address, can be victims of very problematic situations. Criminals, for example, once they have this information in hand, can make loans and purchases as if they were the person who owned the data.
They can also practice extortion: if they don’t receive a certain amount of money, they threaten to use the personal data they illegally stole or say they will publish it for anyone to see.
As mentioned, personal data collected by a company can eventually be spied on, stolen, and even leaked. This happens when the company suffers cyberattacks: an action in which hackers illegally access stored data through computers and devices.
Therefore, in the corporate world, data security aims to ensure the confidentiality of collected data. This, in turn, gives users peace of mind, assuring them that their personal information will not be vulnerable to criminals.
For this reason, in addition to collecting, storing, and processing data securely, the organization must be deeply aware of the LGPD and invest in cybersecurity.
Some measures are necessary for user data to be protected, such as complying with the LGPD and enabling two-factor authentication. Understand better below.
Instead of storing user data in a local environment, storing it on a cloud platform is more secure.
This is because some of the advantages of cloud storage are physical security, as most employees need access to the location where the servers are located. Virtual security, as cloud providers, have firewalls capable of protecting stored data. , filtering out any suspicious traffic, and preserving confidential data.
Therefore, for data security to be efficient, a necessary action that the company must take is to use cloud software.
Backup is crucial for a company for several reasons, most notably to ensure the security of user and customer data. When making a backup, the company creates a backup copy of data allocated on a storage device and stores it on another device.
That way, if the data is corrupted in a cyber attack or accidentally deleted by one of the employees or some system failure, the company needs to use the backup to restore the original data.
In summary, making backups periodically generates greater security for the company, which will know how to deal with problems storing personal data.
Having a large amount of user data was once seen as an advantage. However, the more personal data a company stores, the greater its responsibilities, as it can be corrupted and generate regulatory fines that harm the business’s financial health.
Today, an organization can avoid taking such responsibility when collecting data. All it has to do is collect only the data it needs, that is, the data it needs from a business point of view.
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