Database management carries utmost importance in every business today, no matter how big or small it might be. If you are a business owner, you must have a good internal DBA team or even outsource the full database management to a remote DBA team for efficiency. One of the main elements of effective database management is cybersecurity. If your database is managed well, it is protected from security threats and crimes.
Beware of the threats of cybercrimes in the modern era
Cybercrimes are constant. You will find them taking place both during times of crisis and when the market is constant. Recently, in 2020, there was a surge in criminal activity, especially ransomware and malware attacks, during the initial weeks of the lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus.
This concern, as experienced database administrators state, is logical and even more in the current scenario. More individuals are working from their homes. They are using business-sensitive data and customer critical data. This information is transcending the boundaries of the organization. The levels of traffic on the Internet are high.
Cybercriminals are active, and their main target is home workers. However, insurance, banking, and financial institutions cannot work from home as it is not conducive. They lack the practice, and the same establishments have to some extent realized that they should have a work from home policy in place for their plans for business continuity.
Effective management of data security
Irrespective of the need, these businesses know that effective security management is the need of the hour. This will only arise if the database management is done effectively. Every step from prevention to the detection of the security crime should be secure. As a business owner, you should know where the data is, how you should extract it, and how it can interoperate across and go beyond your organization’s boundaries. This is the key to protect both your business and customer’s valuable data.
The need to beef up security controls and access for companies
Specialists from esteemed database management and administration company, RemoteDBA.com state that data is the most invaluable asset every business owner has. They say that the security controls must be close to the information that should be protected. Old security systems that are outdated are now obsolete. They are as good as having no security for your data at all. Good database security practices should be in place. Now, the next question, what are these practices?
Consider the following factors when it comes to the cyber-security needs of your organization-
- Where does the data of your company reside?
- Is your data classified?
- Are you securely disposing of data no longer needed?
- Know the roles for accessing which data classification
- Apply the principles to verify and not trust
- Deploy the multifactor authentication for data and administrative access
- Deploy encryption for both data in flight and at rest
- Monitor and log all data access
- Alert suspicious behavior and access
The importance of encryption, access, and location
Firstly, the data encryption should be flexible, and key management solutions assist you in safeguarding sensitive information on the premises and the cloud. Encryption is effective only when it can be operated seamlessly, irrespective of infrastructure. It should work for both data at rest and in the transfer.
Secondly, when it comes to access, this does not mean trust. When you apply the least privilege principle, you are granting access to what is needed for carrying out a specific function for both cluster and storage virtual machine administrators. You can also create extra roles for access control for both a storage virtual machine and clusters. This access control can be customized for specific commands or directories of command.
Thirdly, location is knowing where your data is and how you want to keep it, classify the information, and how do you wish to grant access. Classification offers the opportunity for regulatory compliance. When you determine your most business-critical data about regulations, this helps you place the safeguards you need for protection.
Today, there is an era for data growth and an intense appetite for keeping data on the cloud. Location is crucial for risk management, keeping in mind its imperatives for regulation.
A changed approach to cybersecurity in modern times
Companies need to transform the efforts when it comes to cybersecurity now. The use of machine learning and artificial intelligence is highly prevalent. For instance, take the case of financial services that rely on AI and ML to a large extent. Those organizations that are smart have applied tools for analyzing data. This information is from millions of cyber situations, and they are deploying it to detect potential threats for developing strategies for defense.
This is where business owners need to focus on the right data architecture and the implementation of the correct cybersecurity technologies. This will mitigate bottlenecks and helps in the facilitation of model iteration faster.
The need for holistic data architecture for protecting data
As a business owner, when you design data architecture, you need to think in a holistic way about the information pipeline. This means you should consider the ingest of data with edge analytics to its preparation. This is where you need training in the prime data center and archives in the cloud. It is prudent for you to understand the requirements for performance, data services, and the data sets that are required for the task.
Like large corporations, small business owners should not neglect the importance of effective database management for cybersecurity. Most small business owners assume their companies are safe from cybercriminals; however, this is not the case. There have been innumerable cases where small business owners have been the victims of cyber-crime.
It is here that you should rely on qualified and credible remote database management and administration companies to take care of your cyber-security needs. The professionals will analyze your custom needs and recommend cybersecurity measures to ensure your business-critical information is safeguarded along with customer data round-the-clock.