What you can learn from data leaks explained in less than 500 words

Data leaks remain a hot topic. As the latest reports from DLA Piper show that the number of data leaks in Europe has increased, we continue to read news reports about incorrectly sent information and hacked systems. As a result, countless people are duped and organizations are faced with possible fines and image damage.

Yet, there is hope for the future. Data leaks tell you where the weaknesses are in security systems. You can use this knowledge for your own security strategy. That's why we have four lessons in this blog that you will definitely want to learn.

4 Things you can learn from data leaks

• Conduct penetration tests regularly to test your own systems

  Having a secure system is one thing, but knowing whether it is actually doing its job is a whole other story. After all, implementing security is not where it ends. In order to prevent a cyberattack you need to know if your systems are effective. Are you not doing that? Then you might get the answer in a real cyber attack, instead of a simulation.
  
  Data leaks occur in many organizations because people often do not know how secure their system really is. By regularly testing and improving your systems, you will hopefully never have to report a real data leak.

• Train your employees so that they are aware of their online activities

  Sending data to the wrong person: it remains the number one cause of data leaks. And that is not very strange. Speed, exhaustion and ignorance can lead to mistakes.
  
  Involve your employees in your security strategy by training them. This way you turn your weakest links into your strongest defense.

• Schedule software updates

  Cyber criminals still manage to hack outdated systems. They will go places that you might have already forgotten about. And unfortunately with success.
  
  Discover where the weak spots in your systems are. Always perform updates so you know that you are working according to the latest security standards.

• Encrypt data, both moving and at rest

  A lot of data is exchanged every day. But is this done the right way? And when this data has found its destination, what happens to it?
  
  Cyber attacks on servers: something you hope will not happen, but is a serious risk. This is also a common cause of data leaks. Servers contain a huge amount of sensitive data. If this data is used with wrong intentions, the consequences for many will be huge.
  
  By sending and storing your data encrypted, you reduce this risk. With zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption, only the sender and the authenticated recipient (s) have access to your data. Even if it is stored on a server, for example from a third party. If an attack is successful, your data will be unreadable for third parties.

Staying up to date is the best thing to do. This way you don’t have to worry about a hacker having more knowledge than you do. And they will also try to use this knowledge, but with different goals than those you have in mind.