April 25, 2022 | Amanda Croskrey

Keeping your database safe from risk and security breaches is achievable in a few easy steps.

Data risk management is important for any organization. Since there are always going to be constant threats to security of your data, data risks are important to both plan for and have an understanding of the different potential threats they pose. Data risk management is all about how businesses manage their data and how they mitigate potential risks.

However, many organizations lack the proactive thinking when it comes to the scope of data risks such as gaps in privacy and ethical use. As technology continues to change, the best practice for assessing risks is to stay on top of laws, innovation, and internal management procedures and practices.

In the U.S., there are many data protection laws that organizations need to follow. These include laws both at the federal and state levels.

The Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC) allows the FTC to enforce such actions on unfair data protection practices. There are no general laws that protect against misuse, but many data protection laws are correlated with a specific sector.

It is a best practice to look up your entity type and what sort of data protection laws are correlated.

As for state specific laws, if we focus on the state of Colorado, there is a law that requires businesses and organizations, including public entities, to report data breaches to consumers and a notice to the Attorney General if 500 or more people have been affected. If the data breach has affected more than 1,000 people in Colorado, you must report to consumer reporting agencies. The law went in to effect January 5th, 2022. The web address to access the form is available online at management, financials, operations, and legal compliance.

Secure user access

Securing your database is very important when it comes to cyberattacks or data breaches. You should only allow administrators to access the database.

Updates

Constant updates to your database is important for any bug fixes, new security, or maintenance. Database architecture is how the database is set up. Database architects are the people who create the structure and organization of the database. The architecture is very important to the security of the data. This is where the overall security standards are set for the life of the database system.

Backups

Data backups are very important if your database system ever goes down. Of course, the backup should be stored securely, but also on a completely separate server so you can access the data when the original server is down.

This creates an additional layer of protection between your data and hackers, since a common practice of cybercriminals is to look for your backups and disable them as well. In addition, a best practice is to regularly test backup storage to ensure they are working properly.

Audit

Auditing is always a great idea for any sort of data. Auditing allows data to be current and accurate and allows for investigations of bad data.

Many problems can be detected from auditing, which allows the opportunity for updates in the future. Every insurer will now require an audit before extending coverage. This is often an expense totaling in the thousands of dollars.

Testing

One of the most important practices is to test the security on your database. Brainstorming ways of potential breach and testing your security can