Building Principles For Business Data Compliance

Data breach and compliance fines can be the death of a business. No business is too big to be targeted, as WhatsApp found in a recent $267M GDPR fine, as reported by TechCrunch. In the age of digital business and remote working, data is the lifeblood of the economy, and huge efforts are being made to ensure that it is protected. For businesses, following a set of data safety and security principles will ensure they are on the right side of the law at all times.

WORM principles

Underpinning any data security system should be an adherence to WORM – write once, read many. WORM compliance  is a process that ensures that data cannot be tampered with or removed once written, yet allows continuous access to the data in the future. This is especially important with regards to remote working. A report by TechRepublic highlights how data security is placed at risk from remote working at least in part due to data protection issues surrounding remote submission of data. A unified central system that allows a single write event improves data assurance.

Tackling cyber threats

While putting data in one place is advisable, it’s another challenge to actually protect it. Reuters have highlighted an upwards trend in cyberattacks on American institutions and businesses, and small enterprise needs to be flexible to address this. Ensuring that hacks do not progress and are bounced off of defensive systems is a long-term goal for any business, but especially those operating solely in the digital space.

Understanding change

As the New York Times rightly highlights, American data privacy law is a patchwork affair. There are few omnipresent federal laws, and states have their own protections that vary depending from region to region. However, unification may be on the way in order to replicate efforts in the EU and UK, and that means change in the way that states apply their law. The result will be a system easier to understand and comply with, but it won’t come without it’s own share of upheaval along the way. 

Anticipating these changes and moving ahead of them will enable businesses to be ready to address changes in the cybersecurity ecosystem. It’s crucial that data is protected; businesses rely on their data, and they rely on its protection to secure client confidence. A unified approach goes a long way to meeting that.