TL;DR

Data security encompasses practices protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Recent studies show that 83% of data loss from SaaS applications stems from well-meaning but negligent employees, while only 11% comes from hackers (Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 2023). Organizations implementing comprehensive data security measures reduce breach costs by up to 3.05 million USD (IBM Security Cost of a Data Breach Report, 2024). In the European Union, GDPR violations can result in fines up to €20 million or 4% of global annual revenue, while healthcare organizations in North America face average HIPAA-related penalties of $1.5 million per violation category (HHS Office for Civil Rights, 2023).

Key Points:

• Data security is crucial for all businesses. It protects sensitive information from unauthorised access, theft, or loss. Businesses must comply with data protection regulations to avoid legal trouble.
• Different types of data require protection, including personal identifiable information (PII), health information (PHI), and financial data.
• Common threats to data security include cyberattacks, insider threats, misconfigurations, and physical risks.
• Automated data security solutions, such as Metomic, protect and secure sensitive data stored in SaaS applications.

There aren’t many businesses around these days that don’t handle data. Even your local bakery likely takes card transactions, which means they’re handling your data when you pop out for a loaf of bread.

It’s not just down to big businesses to have their data security under control. Understanding data security fundamentals is key for any organisation that handles sensitive customer or employee information.

What is Data Security?

Data security is the practice of protecting sensitive information from unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. It's essential for compliance with regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA and NIST.

Data can easily be bought and sold on the web, so it’s a highly valuable asset for hackers. But whether the cyber threat comes from outside the business, or from negligent employees uploading data to the wrong places, ensuring data is secured should be a key part of any security strategy.

It’s imperative that any business handling data secures it to ensure:

• Confidential information isn’t shared with the wrong person or in the wrong place
• Compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA
• Business operations can continue uninterrupted as the company is not dealing with the fallout of a data breach
• Business reputation is kept intact as the risk of a data breach is reduced
• Legal costs are kept to a minimum as data breaches are avoided
• Intellectual property is kept confidential, safeguarding information from theft or espionage

What types of data need to be protected?

When you’re considering the type of data you’ll need to protect, it’s worth mapping out the data you currently handle, and classifying it to understand how much protection each data type will need.

Types of data you should be considering include:

1. Personally Identifiable Information (PII): Businesses often store customer PII including names, addresses, and social security numbers, among other data
2. Protected Health Information (PHI): Covered by HIPAA in the US, PHI covers billing records, admission records, medications, and more
3. Special category data: Data that could reveal someone’s racial or ethnic origin, genetic data, or political opinions among other sensitive data
4. Employee data: Your employees’ bank details, social security numbers, and more
5. Payment Card Information (PCI) data: Details of credit or debit cards that customers have used to purchase your goods or services
6. Financial data: Company data like your revenue, and operating expenses, or your customers’ bank details, or tax records
7. Intellectual Property: For instance, trademarks, blueprints, copyrights, and trade secrets.
8. Secrets and API keys: Authentication keys that can be used to impersonate a member of your team

What are the common risks and threats to data?

Once upon a time, threats to data came from a purely physical perspective like the risk of devices being stolen or accidentally left behind. However, threats now come from a wide range of places, both digital and physical, and there are new vulnerabilities emerging every day.

Let’s take a look at the different types of threats your data could be hit by:

1. Physical threats

As we just mentioned, the theft of devices can still pose a problem today, but data can also fall victim to natural disasters like floods or fires that can destroy infrastructure, resulting in the loss of important data.

2. Cyberattacks

Malware such as viruses or ransomware can put your data at risk of being infected or stolen, while hackers can use techniques such as phishing to trick your team into giving away sensitive data or allowing them access to your network.

Denial of service (DoS) attacks can also be detrimental to your data, overwhelming your networks so that you can no longer access the services you need, and Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks allow hackers to intercept data while in transit.‍

3. Insider Threats

Surprisingly, the greatest risk to losing data isn’t from hackers. In fact, 83% of data loss from SaaS apps is caused by well meaning, but negligent employees and only 11% is caused by hackers. The final 6% is the fault of malicious employees who are deliberately disrupting data to sabotage the business.

Insider threats can pose a danger to your business - whether intentional or not - as data can be shared in the wrong place or with the wrong people. For instance, customer email addresses could be shared in Slack by employees who are looking for the quickest way to get things done.

4. Misconfigurations or missed updates

While you might not have a zero-trust strategy in place, you’ll certainly need adequate access controls set up so that unauthorised users cannot access sensitive data. Adopting this from day one can ensure that your sensitive documents are kept safe.

Having your cloud environment and SaaS apps set up correctly will also mean there’s less chance of data being leaked, although it’s a good idea to have Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) solutions in place to keep your data locked down.

Failure to update or patch software that you use can also leave systems vulnerable so this should never be neglected.

Further reading: SaaS Security: The 9 Most Common Issues & How to Prevent Them

What are some of the regulations you might be required to comply with?

1. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

GDPR applies to businesses handling personal data within the 27 member countries of the European Union. It was brought in to protect the privacy of individuals, and gives them the right to know how their data is used as well as the right to request their data be deleted.

If you are found to be in breach of these rules, you can face fines of up to €20 million or 4% of global annual revenue - whichever is higher.

2. California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

Specific to California, CCPA ‘applies to for-profit businesses that do business in California’ and meet a certain set of criteria. Businesses outside California may need to comply with CCPA if they are working with California residents.

CCPA protects consumer privacy rights, and gives individuals a certain amount of control over their data.

As with most regulations, you can face fines and legal action if you’re found to be in breach of the rules.

3. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA):

If you’re a healthcare organisation operating in the US, you’ll need to be complying with HIPAA regulations, in order to protect patients’ Protected Health Information (PHI).

As patient data is passed from one insurance provider to another, it is imperative that sensitive data is protected. If it isn’t, you could be fined or face criminal charges.

4. Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)

PCI DSS 4.0 compliance is applicable to organisations that handle credit or debit card transactions. It helps protect data so that fraudsters cannot take advantage of it.

As this was created by some of the biggest names in the card industry, most businesses will need to comply with it, and protect cardholder data. If you don’t, you could be facing fines, lawsuits, and you may not be able to process cards in the future, limiting your ability to take payments.

What are the potential implications of data leaks and breaches?

If your data should be leaked or breached, there can be massive repercussions for the business, but there can also be implications for individuals too.

Implications for Organisations

Businesses may face financial losses from legal costs, regulatory fines, and disruptions to operations that can spell disaster for organisations who aren’t prepared for a data breach. As well as the financial impact, the brand’s reputation can also take a dramatic hit as customers and partners lose loyalty to the company.

Important data can be permanently destroyed too, leaving businesses without the data they need to function effectively. And, if your trade secrets are released to the world, there’s no stopping your competitors getting their hands on your plans.

Ben van Enckevort, CTO at Metomic at Metomic, says,

“The regulations you’ll need to abide by will be specific to your location and industry. You’ll need to be aware of any regulations that could affect you as you have a legal obligation to uphold them, as well as a moral obligation to your customers. If you fail to comply, you can be fined and legal action may be taken against you. However, it’s not only the financial consequences that can be crippling. The reputational damage can last a lot longer, and customers may choose to take their business elsewhere, if they lose trust in you.”

Your organisation may also suffer from a decreased market value, and your operations may have to be paused while an investigation takes place. All of this can be difficult to navigate for any business, but smaller businesses can particularly feel the effects.

Implications for Individuals

Individuals who have their data leaked or stolen can be victims of identity theft, losing money in the process, and taking on much emotional distress.

Individuals who are in charge of security may also face consequences from the organisation itself, and will need to co-operate fully with any investigations in order to prevent any further legal repercussions.

What data security measures should be put in place to ensure data is protected?

It’s always best to take a proactive approach to data protection, and put measures in place before anything goes wrong.

Make sure you have all the following in place, to ensure your data is protected:

• Always classify your data: Understanding where your most sensitive data is stored is crucial, so classifying it based on its sensitivity means you can safeguard it in the best possible way
• Put strict access controls in place: Make your most sensitive documents harder for unauthorised users to access by implementing strict access controls
• Encrypt sensitive data where possible: Adding an extra layer of security, encryption or data masking can protect your data while at rest or in transit
• Enforce data security policies: Make your team aware of the data security policies you have in place, including any data retention policies, and remote work policies too
• Provide regular employee training: Annual training sessions aren’t always enough - encourage your team to proactively protect their data within their roles
• Conduct regular security audits: Identifying weaknesses with regular audits can make sure you’re on top of any current vulnerabilities in your systems
• Offboard employees efficiently: Employees leaving your business should not be able to access sensitive data if offboarded correctly
• Conduct due diligence on partners: Ensure there are no weaknesses in your third party supply chain that could be taken advantage of
• Stay up to date with regulation changes: Find the best ways to stay abreast of any regulation updates so you can stay one step ahead
• Backup your data: Losing your data can be detrimental to your organisation so having plans in place to regularly back it up are essential

How can data security solutions help organisations protect data?

Data security solutions are vital, particularly for teams who have limited resources, and need support from automated tools. Not only do they help organisations protect against data breaches that can result in financial or reputational losses, they can help to preserve individuals’ privacy rights too.

From a financial perspective, data security solutions can help prevent losses through various factors including theft, fraud, and the costs associated with mitigating the aftermath of a data breach.

Having a robust data security solution in place also maintains trust and reputation with clients, partners, and stakeholders, which is crucial for long-term success.

10 types of data security for data protection

1. Sensitive Data Discovery

You can’t protect what you can’t see. Sensitive data, such as PII, may be stored in SaaS applications such as Slack and Google Drive, but without the visibility the company requires, the necessary protections cannot be put in place.

Sensitive data discovery tools help security teams map out their sensitive data, categorising it so that organisations understand the types of data they are storing. Having this in place also helps businesses to comply with data protection regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA.

2. Access Controls

Giving employees access to every document across the business undoubtedly increases the risk of a data leak or breach occurring. Access controls allow organisations to place restrictions on who can view sensitive data based on their job roles, seniority or other factors.

Employing a zero-trust strategy may be the right approach for some businesses, while others will find this too restrictive. Implementing access controls can help find a good balance between protecting sensitive data, revoking access from those who do not require it, and reducing the risk of unauthorised data exposure.

3. Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

DLP is a key aspect of any data security strategy. Monitoring an organisation’s environment to prevent accidental or intentional data leaks, DLP tools safeguard sensitive data in transit, and at rest.

It can help businesses identify data risks, and put the right protections in place to prevent sensitive data like customer information, company secrets, or Intellectual Property (IP) being leaked or breached.

4. Employee Awareness

As companies work more with cloud-based solutions, security teams lose the control they once had on the perimeter of their network. Therefore, it’s essential that employees are also aware of the risks they may be creating within SaaS applications.

Employee awareness programs can help educate staff on data security best practices, helping to build a Human Firewall that is security-conscious, and aware of the risks they could create. Bridging the gap between the security team and the rest of the workforce can be instrumental in protecting sensitive data.

5. Insider Threat

Insider threats are often deemed to have malicious motivations, but many insider threats are actually the result of negligent employees who may not realise they’re sharing sensitive data in the wrong places.

Insider threat solutions can help detect and prevent this happening, by alerting security teams to anomalous behaviour from employees, contractors, or business partners, so they can address any problems swiftly and prevent any issues before they escalate.

6. Antivirus Software

Antivirus software is vital for any organisation as it is designed to detect and protect against malicious software (malware) that can harm important systems. Real-time scanning ensures that threats are addressed as soon as possible and prevents the spread of infections across the organisation’s infrastructure.

Antivirus software scans files and programs, seeking patterns of malicious code that could threaten the integrity of data stored within your systems.

7. Backup Tools

Failing to back up your data can have serious consequences if your systems were compromised; the data may become corrupted, altered, or completely lost.

A data security solution can provide backup support to keep copies of data and safeguard against data loss, in the event of accidental deletion, system failures, or cyberattacks, ensuring minimal business disruption if your original data was damaged.

8. Data Encryption

Data encryption is a vital part of data security. Converting readable data into an unreadable format, it safeguards sensitive information from unauthorised access.

If a malicious actor were to access your data, encryption ensures that prying eyes won’t be able to read it unless they are in possession of the correct decryption key. Encryption keeps information confidential in transit and at rest.

Some data protection regulations require organisations to encrypt their data in order to remain compliant.

9. SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)

SIEM systems are used to collect security event data from various sources across the business to identify incidents and analyse them to understand how events unfolded.

By providing a centralised view of security events across the organisation, SIEM tools can help security teams uncover vulnerabilities and respond to incidents in real-time. Depending on the industry and geographical location of the organisation, a SIEM system might be needed to support compliance reporting.

10. DSPM (Data Security Posture Management)

DSPM is a requirement for any security team that is looking to take an holistic approach to data security. It helps security teams manage and enforce data security policies across the organisation, providing centralised control over data security measures such as access controls, encryption, and data discovery.

Streamlining data security management, DSPM tools can improve visibility and control over data protection measures.

What new security challenges do we face with data?

Whereas data security used to centre around the perimeter of an organisation’s network, the implementation of the cloud and the profilteration of SaaS applications in the last few years, means that there are evolving challenges to keep on top of as a security professional.

Accessed from anywhere in the world, cloud platforms have helped businesses employ teams globally but with so much sensitive data held in insecure SaaS apps like Slack, or Google Drive, businesses run the very real risk of data being leaked or breached.

The rise of AI tools, such as Chat GPT, also presents a new security risk as employees can regularly use it to check sensitive data such as source code, unaware of the dangers of sharing this with a Large Language Model (LLM), for instance.

As cyber attacks become more sophisticated, the danger of losing data only increases, making the requirement for Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) tools even greater.

How can Metomic help secure your data?

Metomic is a human-centric data security solution, helping businesses to protect sensitive data across their entire SaaS stack.

Integrating instantly with apps such as Slack, Jira, and ChatGPT, Metomic gives security professionals peace of mind, without getting in the way of employees doing their jobs.

Ready to take the next step towards enhanced data security for your organisation? Book your personalised demo with our security experts and discover how Metomic can help.

Frequently Asked Questions About Data Security

How do data security requirements differ across global markets?

Data security requirements vary significantly by region. European organizations must comply with GDPR's comprehensive framework emphasizing data subject rights, explicit consent requirements, and stringent documentation. North American businesses navigate sector-specific regulations like HIPAA for healthcare and GLBA for financial services, alongside state laws like CCPA in California and SHIELD in New York. Asia-Pacific organizations face evolving requirements like Singapore's PDPA, Japan's APPI, and Australia's Privacy Act, with countries increasingly adopting GDPR-influenced principles but with local variations. Organizations operating across borders must implement region-specific controls while maintaining a cohesive global security framework.

What are the comparative costs of data breaches in different regions?

Data breach costs vary considerably by region. North American organizations face the highest costs, averaging $9.48 million per breach in the United States. European businesses experience costs around €3.8 million ($4.2 million) per incident, with higher impacts for GDPR violations. UK organizations typically see costs of £3.2 million ($4 million) per breach. Asia-Pacific region costs average $2.8 million, though Japan's costs are significantly higher at $4.7 million. These differences reflect variations in regulatory penalties, breach notification requirements, legal systems, and customer expectations across markets. Healthcare and financial sectors consistently face the highest costs regardless of geography.

How should multinational organizations approach data security?

Multinational organizations should implement a layered data security approach that addresses both global standards and regional requirements. Start by establishing a core security framework based on the most stringent applicable regulations (typically GDPR). Develop region-specific policies addressing local regulatory requirements while maintaining consistent global standards. Implement data residency controls for different jurisdictions, with data classification that reflects regional variations in definitions of sensitive information. Deploy centralized security tools with region-specific policy enforcement capabilities, and create a cross-functional governance team with representatives from each major operational region to ensure comprehensive compliance.

What industry-specific data security measures are required in different sectors?

Industry-specific data security measures vary significantly across sectors and regions. Healthcare organizations in the US must implement HIPAA-compliant controls including encryption, access management, and audit trails, while European healthcare providers face additional GDPR requirements for special category data. Financial institutions globally need robust transactional data protections, with additional requirements from regional regulators like the SEC, FCA, or MAS. Retail and e-commerce businesses must address payment card security through PCI DSS alongside appropriate consumer data protections for their operational regions. Manufacturing and technology companies require stronger intellectual property safeguards with export controls for certain markets.

How can small businesses implement cost-effective data security?

Small businesses can implement cost-effective international data security through several strategic approaches. First, prioritize security investments based on data sensitivity and regulatory risk, focusing on high-value information protection. Leverage cloud security platforms with region-specific compliance templates rather than building custom solutions. Implement "security-as-a-service" solutions that provide enterprise-grade protection with flexible pricing. Consider regional security partnerships with local experts in key markets rather than maintaining full-time specialists. Develop simplified but comprehensive policies addressing core requirements across all operational regions, and use automated compliance tools to efficiently monitor security across international operations while maximizing resource efficiency.

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