Data is undoubtedly one of the most valuable assets of an organization. With easy-to-use and affordable options such as cloud-based storage environments, storing huge amounts of data in one place has become almost hassle-free. However, space is not the only concern for businesses any more.

With only 5% of companies’ folders properly secured, on average, data storage security is now one of the topmost priorities for enterprises.

First, it is important to understand the different security risks against data. There are threats related to physical access to the systems in which data is stored.

For example:

When selecting the physical location to store confidential data, make sure that the place is difficult to tamper with or retrieve data from it.

Besides physical threats, there’s a large scope of cybersecurity threats that target data stored on networks, servers, and other cloud infrastructure. To deal with such security breaches, here is a list of data storage security best practices that you should consider.

5 Data Storage Security Best Practices

1. Enforce Strong Data Storage Security Policies

Each organization should create, enforce, and update a comprehensive data storage security plan. To be effective, data storage security policies need to be implemented everywhere, from the office, mobile devices, storage devices, and throughout the on-premise infrastructure and across the web.

Data storage security policies help maximize your data security by helping you identify sensitive data, critical assets, and implementing strong security controls to monitor and safeguard each level of data classification.

Want to learn more about how to enforce data storage security policies?

Let’s take a closer look:

Know What Data You Have

The first step of implementing data storage security policies is identifying what data you have. Ensure a clear understanding of the regulatory and privacy requirements of your organization. Assess the data you have, determine what is confidential and what might not be as important to your business.

By understanding the risks associated with different levels of data, you will be able to determine what needs more stringent security policies and what can be stored with basic cybersecurity measures.

For instance, sensitive information that is stored digitally such as intellectual property, personal identifying information about employees or customers including protected health information (PHI), social security numbers, and/or financial details like credit card details needs to be properly secured.

Read the full blog at CypressDataDefense.com.