5 Data Security Measures to Protect Your Enterprise Content Management System
We live in a world where everything is data, and data is everything!
In the last few years, the corporate world witnessed a massive surge in business and customer data volume. Much of this data is now digital and on the cloud. Sensitive financial data and customers' personal information is vulnerable to unintentional leaks and premeditated theft.
Data security and privacy concerns are more important now than ever.
As data becomes more and more interoperable within organizations or between them, businesses face a growing threat of data breaches. Some organizations report that almost 3-4 hacking attempts happen daily on their data networks. These threats have CEOs and CIOs fretting over the complexities and costs associated with information security.
A case in point is a non-public investigation by the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2019. A security failure on the website of a real estate insurance major. First American Financial Corporation, led to unauthorized access of about 885 million personal and financial records dating back to 2003. The organization incurred high costs to fix the data security issues to prevent another mishap.
IBM's report on Cost of a Data Breach Report 2020 reveals that the cost of a data breach is one of the highest for the US, i.e. USD 8.64 million! The report gives insights into how a significant breach can potentially damage a company's reputation, leading to lost business and a loss of competitive disadvantage. It also explores financial impacts and security measures to mitigate data security costs.
However, protecting business information need not be complicated or expensive. It's time for organizations to drive the tenets of information security through employee education and changes in work culture.
Organizations will face many challenges to sustain growth while maintaining data security and compliance with privacy regulations. Business data is scattered across various types of enterprise content, including websites, internal documents, partner or vendor documents, financial and sales data, and customer information.
Companies will have to work to plug the holes as far as possible to secure their information. Routing enterprise-wide content into a core information management platform or enterprise content management system (ECM) is an essential first step to data security.
What factors affect data security?
Let's look at some typical challenges that organizations face with data security:
Data security measures within the company
The IT products market is aflush with security software. However, buying a technology product does not mean that your systems are protected and compliant—your people and processes must be geared and prepped from the very start to stay safe and compliant with data protection regulations. Organizations must ask themselves: Do we know who accesses which documents in our organizational structure? Do we have detailed audit trails of changes made to business records? Do we have a single source of truth for the who, what, and when questions around access control?
Protection outside your organization
Your data will at some time be accessed from devices and networks outside your company's firewalls. Large numbers of documents are received manually via sources like paper mail, email, or fax. Your partners, contractors, or auditors may need to access and update your in-house documents. And essentially, when you use cloud-based apps, your data is stored on third-party servers. All of these are potential sources of third-party risk. Many data breaches happen not internally but as a result of third-party exposure.
Legacy systems or outdated platforms
In organizations where the benefits of business continuity outweigh the risk of business disruption, legacy information systems still exist and may pose a security threat. Remember, if your legacy systems are outdated, you need to replace them with tools to gain compliance. Replace legacy systems and upgrade the technology to achieve compliance and ensure application data security.
Compliance for archives
Do you still store paper-based archives of old business records? Are you up-to-date on retention policies and compliances for long-term records storage? There is a high cost to maintaining a large volume of legacy paper records and a high risk of theft or environmental damage. Access and timely retrieval are also issues with paper documents in storage.
Employee awareness and training
Are your IT teams and administrators trained to prevent data breaches? Are your end-users or power users of business applications aware of information security risks and prepared to stay vigilant and comply with security guidelines?
Does your Quality Department have a process to manage the quality of content across the lifecycle, i.e. from creation to disposal? In many companies, quality managers struggle with version management for documents without a transparent information management system.
What measures can you take to improve data security?
Begin your journey towards enhanced data security with security compliance using technology and tools you already own. As a next step, deploy a robust, scalable content management platform that brings together all the tools and technologies you need to protect your enterprise-level content.
#1 Secure information storage and archival with a robust ECM
An ECM is a centrally accessible, secure repository that stores all your content, with features that give you complete control over user access, digital rights management, versioning, audit trails, e-signatures, and more. Deploy an industry-accepted standard of data encryption like the Advanced Data Encryption Standard (AES), which scrambles data repeatedly and makes data unusable to hackers if an attack happens. Build redundancy using cloud storage to protect data from natural disasters and environmental damage.
#2 Retention management
Clearly define retention policies for different types of information. Optimize storage of archives and put in place a document destruction policy for data that is no longer needed. Use separate devices or locations for long-term archives, making them more difficult to attack. Achieve full compliance to retention policies mandated by the industry and governing bodies.
#3 Use secure collaboration tools
In a digital workplace, your employees require tools for secure file sharing and collaborative work. Similarly, data interoperability between different business systems and data integration and flow between ECM, ERP, and financial systems are critical for successful digital transformation at an enterprise level. Data at each of these levels must be secured using the right tools.
#4 Enterprise-level search and access reports
Adopt a platform that monitors unauthorized access of documents, file sharing, email attachments, and cloud storage. Reduce security risks to your organization by consistent review of content access audit reports. Evaluate search history across the organization and keep track of which files were accessed, by whom, and when. Nip data breaches in the bud by staying vigilant!
#5 Process automation tools
Automate business processes wherever possible, as any manual interventions introduce security vulnerabilities in the system. Advanced process automation tools use AI/ML to make sure nothing slips through the cracks!
At RDS, we have solutions and services to automate your operational processes and integrate your content management system with ERP systems that enforce tighter security controls.
Talk to our consulting and technical teams to understand, identify, and close the gaps in your content management infrastructure. We add value to your existing application framework by building a secure document management environment to mitigate your organization's data security threats.
We implement customized ECM solutions for our clients, keeping in mind data security and compliance and provide a holistic, value-added solution.
OpenText Application Content Management (formerly ApplicationXtender) is a powerful content management system used by thousands of organizations worldwide. Contact us today for a demo.