What is Data Privacy?

In cyber security, data privacy is an understanding of the rights of a consumer as to how their personal information is obtained, used, stored and shared. We can see data breaches are being conducted both at large and small scale. Most of us are more familiar with large scale incidents. Therefore, a cyber security breach can endanger the credibility and can create impact on small businesses who are without cyber liability insurance, which hampers the customer service, productivity and reputation.

Data breaches are cyber security attacks that compromise personal data and privacy. In general, we use cyber security or information security and data privacy as interchangeable terms.

What is Cyber Security or Information Security?

Cyber security or Information security are the steps taken to protect a system against unauthorized access from a hacker. A strong cyber security policy protects critical and sensitive data and prohibits it from falling into the hands of malicious attackers. Cyber attacks may include phishing, spear phishing and injecting malware code into a computer system.

On the other hand, data privacy is a type of information security that emphasizes proper handling of data related to consent, notice, sensitivity and regulatory concerns. Consumers must understand the use of their personal information and must give consent before they share it.

Global Data Privacy and Cyber Laws

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

After the launch of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), by the European Union (EU) in 2018, the protection of data privacy has come to the forefront. The GDPR has updated an older data law to reflect today’s ever-changing technology. The GDPR emphasizes more on the organization’s requirement to process and collect personal data. This places more importance on accountability and evidencing compliance while strengthening the rights of an individual.

GDPR relates to all data whether directly or indirectly, related to an identifiable person in the EU that is processed by an individual, or a company. The businesses that process people’s personal data within the EU are subject to the GDPR, irrespective of its geographical location. This means that all companies using data of EU subjects, whether outside the EU, need to comply with the new ways of securing data relating to identifying information, IP address, cookies, health, genetic or biometric data, and others.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), allows the residents of California a mixture of new privacy rights, which starts with the right to be informed about the kinds of personal data collected by the companies and their purpose behind it. The CCPA law stipulates that consumers have the right to request the deletion of personal information, access the personal information in a “readily usable format” which enables the easy transfer of the data to third parties or opt out of the sale of personal information.

Though the law is relevant to the residents of California, the businesses need not have to physically present in California. A business should be concerned with the CCPA, if they fall under the following stipulations:

• they must have a gross revenue over $25 million,
• receive and share the personal information of over 50,000 Californians annually or
• receive at least 50% of its annual revenue by selling the personal information of the residents of California.

Insurance and Privacy Legislation

As discussed above, the GDPR and California privacy regulations are focused on the importance of data privacy. Whereas, this privacy expands to the systems that collect, store, process and transmit data. Cyber privacy includes both personally identifying information (PII) or non-identifying information, when both are aggregated, they can be used to identify-like a user’s behavior on a website and cookie information.

The GDPR requires that an organization shall notify data protection regulators and affected individuals about any data breach. This can result in a privacy risk to those affected. This can ultimately result in an increase in the cost of responding to data breach, along with the chances that affected individuals will claim against the controller.

The CCPA strengthens the rights of an individual to access and protect their personal data. The rights include a right for the individual to request that their data be deleted (the right to erasure), a right to object to processing and the right to data portability in electronic form. In short, a policyholder could request a copy of all the data that the insurer has with him in a commonly used format so they can provide it to their new insurer. Along with this, individuals must be informed about any automated decision-making.

What are the Signs of a Cyber Security Attack?

If you know the warning signs of a cyber security attack, you will be able to protect your business from a data breach. These include the following:

• Inspect Suspicious files- If a user reports about a suspicious file being opened, make sure to take steps in serious note. The malware detected, can impact other files too and alerts you about data breaches.
• Examine unusual behavior- If a program acts up, this may be due to malfunctioning of software or hardware, or it may be something much worse. Check the irregularities on the system and act accordingly.
• Perform scans- Always keep the anti-virus and anti-malware programs updated. Perform vulnerability programs to search missing patches and other security risks.
• Make a review of system communication- Monitor the communication patterns on the network regularly. If you ever notice an employee’s computer is accessing other workstations or transmitting huge amounts of data to somewhere outside of the network, it may indicate a sign of compromise.
• Check your Credit- There may exist many confidential data other than customer information on the server. If you notice a change in your credit rating, this can indicate a smell of fraud.

How can you Defend a Cyber Security Attack?

The ultimate goal of cyber security attacks is to get an individual’s or company’s data and the risk for a data breach at an organization has become increasingly higher. By the time, the companies are becoming more aware about the data breaches and the impact they have on their brand value, reputation and customer loyalty. 

Hence, the companies are making it a priority to secure their organization from data breaches through data security training. This makes it compulsory for the companies to create a company-wide data breach policy along with a response plan to be implemented. The following measures can be undertaken to defend the data breaches:

• Keep the data safe- Data breaches mainly occur due to employee error, so the staff should be allowed to access the information which are important for their particular role within the company. Take consideration of records retention programs which require employees to purge files on both computer systems and hard copies. Old data shall be archived properly or deleted based on local and federal laws, and company policies. 
• Set of password protection program- To protect your organization from a data breach, you should use strong passwords for every site accessed on a regular basis. One should be conscious, not to share passwords between employees or write down where others could see it.
• Keep the security software updated- The businesses shall make use of firewalls, anti-virus software and anti-spyware programs to ensure that sensitive data cannot be easily accessed by the hackers. These security programs require regular upgradation to keep them free from vulnerabilities. Make sure to check any software vendor’s websites to learn about recent security patches and other upgrades.
• Encryption of data- All data, including those in a personal device, computer or server shall be secured by proper encryption. In most states, companies can benefit from safe harbor exemptions that apply if the company can provide evidence that the data was encrypted before a breach.
• Training the employees- The employees of the business must be trained about the importance and methods of data security. The physical as well as the digital records should be safeguarded all times. The sensitive information about clients, employees or corporate affairs should be kept secure.

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