Most businesses have data that forms a foundational resource of the business, whether that be a contact list, a database of client details or files on the computer.

Identifying what of all the information you use each day is critical, whether that be computer based data or data held on your digital devices, helps us treat that data in ways that protects it from data loss, compromise, exfiltration, alteration, destruction or some other form of hacking.

The use of backups helps protect data from loss or destruction. Protecting data from compromise (i.e., a hacker gains access to the data), exfiltration (a hacker copies the data from your systems to theirs) or alteration (delete or modify specific data or insert bogus data) requires CyberSecurity actions and awareness. Protecting data with access controls, such as requiring usernames and passwords to allow access, or using encryption to prevent unauthorised users gaining access are common protections used in the IT industry. What this means for your business is that data should not be available to all users, in line with it's confidentiality or sensitive classification. Each user should have their own username and password which allows access only to data they require. CyberSecurity training aims to encourage good CyberSecurity practices.

Data Integrity is also concerned with preventing unauthorised alteration of data - i.e. integrity. It is commonly acknowledged in the IT industry that accidental or intentional unauthorised changes to data are regularly made by other staff members who have been allowed more access than required for their role.

Our last topic for this lesson is the concept of at risk data. When you have data that includes personally identifiable details, for example, bank account numbers for clients or suppliers, physical addresses, dates of birth, or anything other data that could be used to identify an individual - this data is considered at risk data when access is not restricted in line with it's sensitivity. A compromise of personally identifiable details is called a data breach. While a compromise of this data could damage your business, more significantly, your business could be legally liable for the consequences of the data breach's impact on customers or suppliers.

Reducing the amount of personally identifiable data which is also at risk is a major aim of Clearstone Governance's courses, We will continue to discuss skills and policies in future modules. The module called Protecting your Data covers this topic in more detail.

Data Integrity

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