Now more than ever, data privacy and security are incredibly important for all businesses so we’d like to expand on our last blog post to help you stay ahead of the game. The European Union has taken a big step in ensuring the security of its citizens’ data by enacting the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect May 25, 2018. We wrote a previous blog post on this, which you can read here. However, the security strategies laid out by the GDPR are good practices for any business, especially since similar regulations are likely on the horizon.
To help you protect the data of your clients and visitors to your website and social media, we’ve compiled a list of suggestions to limit your risk of a data breach, not to mention keep your customers informed about how you use their data:
- Establish a Privacy Policy- Your website needs to have a privacy policy that details what personal information is collected, how that information is used, who the information is shared with, whether users under 13 years of age are allowed to submit their data with parental consent, and whether your site uses cookies to track their user activity. This includes all personal information, even something as simple as a name or an email address.
- Have a plan for the data you collect – This means you should know what data is being collected, where the data is being kept, and who has access to the data at all times. If you have many users who log in and have access to the data, a log management tool is a good way to keep track of who has accessed the data and when.
- Test your data collection security – There are always new vulnerabilities to defend against and sometimes that requires a change in security measures. Your information security plan should be regularly tested to ensure it continues to meet adequate standards for securing any data collected.
- Have an incident response plan – When handling a data security incident, it is imperative that corrections are made quickly in order to minimize the damage. An incident response plan can help expedite the necessary corrections since everyone knows ahead of time who to contact and what needs to be done. The incident response plan should also address communicating the breach to any potential users who would have had their data affected.