Everyone fears losing their private business data and techniques. It’s the sole reason behind confidentiality contracts; putting a safeguard in place to protect your business from disgruntled employees sharing your industry secrets with competitors. There’s nothing more heart-breaking than having your privacy breached by someone you know but there’s also nothing to prepare you for when data privacy is breached from the outside. True, it’s a topic many prefer not to think about but by not giving these digital pirates a second thought leaves plenty of gateways open for them to rob you blind. The best possible way to prepare for a data privacy breach is to look back at other business who had the unfortunate luck of going through a breach themselves and learning from their mistakes.

Never ignore standard security. At the start of your business you may have placed every safeguard known to man but if you aren’t maintaining them, they are likely to fail eventually. A cyber attack in 2017 was easy to do due to misconfigured scanning devices and a fault in the company’s automatic scanner which failed to pick up a major vulnerability in a key processing system. Always be sure to check up on all your security software.

Any business dealing with the details of clients must always have their clientele’s privacy as their first priority. During the infamous data breach in 2018, the business was taken to court rather than those that stole their client’s personal data as they failed to have the correct safeguards in place. Ensuring your clients details are safe also ensures that you and your business aren’t liable to breaches like these.

Secure your servers and opt for the shared responsibility model. In a 2019 breach, data of over 17 million people was exposed, this also included voter records. An unsecured server was easily breached releasing all this data and turning an entire government into a blame-chain trying to find out who was responsible. The shared responsibility model allows the service provider to only be responsible for security up to a point. From that point onwards it’s the responsibility of the user to ensure their safety. For big companies handling mass amounts of data, this can be a life saver but as a consumer always be sure to read the fine print especially when your personal data is at risk.

Digital security is undoubtedly a tough situation, no one wants their industry or personal data breached. Putting in safeguards and keeping them maintained can save the heartache, but just like company’s digital pirates are constantly educating and keeping themselves up to date with all their newest techniques. So, if your business has just placed something in their way and never looked back, maybe it’s time to update your protocols and software.