What Does Data Privacy Mean – Who is Protecting Your Online Transactions?

As our world evolves, technology drives operations online, leading organizations to ramp up data security in droves.

Why? Because data privacy is a significant issue, and it will continue to be as more and more activities move online. But what does data privacy mean, exactly? And more specifically, what is the role of the CIO in protecting data, and how will this vital role continue to evolve? We cover all of this and more to help you ensure your data is secure as you strive toward greater success and a breach-free future.

What Does Data Privacy Mean Today?

Data privacy has been a huge part of corporate conversations lately. And while we hear about it all the time, what does it mean?

When it comes to data privacy, or as some call it, data protection, what we are talking about is ensuring that our data isn’t able to be accessed by anyone other than those officially authorized to view it. While this definition is simple, achieving the goal of impenetrable data security is no easy feat.

In fact, history is riddled with examples of data leaks occurring among even the most trusted and hi-tech companies—showing that even the giants among us struggle with keeping their data safe and secure. Let’s look at some of the most famous of these data privacy snafus.

Data Leaks and Famous Data Privacy Fails

Each year that passes, there seem to be more data privacy leaks. For instance, when you look at the numbers, 2021 was a record year—and not in a good way. Winning the title for the most data leaks and privacy fails is nothing to write home about. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most well-known and trusted companies globally that have experienced devastating data leaks. You may have heard of some of them already—they were that bad.

First off, who doesn’t remember Facebook’s faux pas when “friends” across the globe (533 million) found they belonged among a leaked database, leaving sensitive private information such as phone numbers and more exposed. And then there’s Android, which according to Security Magazine, experienced a data leak that affected more than 100 million Android users thanks to numerous misconfigurations of cloud services.

Finally, even LinkedIn landed itself in hot water with its users when the personal data of 700 million LinkedIn users was found for sale online. With sensitive info, including things like users’ full names, phone numbers, physical and email addresses, and more, it’s understandable why this data breach left many feeling vulnerable and wary of further exposure on online forums.

Unfortunately, such instances are no longer rarities, as a study by the Ponemon Institute confirmed. Specifically, the study found that malicious attacks were the leading cause of more than 50% of data breaches by 2020. And the average fiscal damage (cost) of fixing each of those data breaches was a staggering $4 million.

These instances are scary to hear about, much less experience firsthand. After all, if these megaliths—among the biggest companies in the world—aren’t able to keep our data safe, what hope is there for average operations? Are we all going to need to resort to having personal hackers now to feel safe?

It’s definitely something to ponder, which leads me to my next question: Ultimately, who is responsible for data? Many say the lion’s share of responsibility lies with the CIO.

The Role of the CIO in Data Privacy

A CIO, or chief information officer, is tasked with the role of overseeing the people, processes, and technologies within a company’s IT organization. The purpose of this oversight is to ensure that an organization’s workforce delivers outcomes that support the specific goals laid forth by the business.

Due to the nature of this position, it’s the CIO who is often responsible for signing off on any tech services and tech equipment. This means that it’s also an integral part of the role of the CIO to think about data privacy in every service procured. After all, as we mentioned before—with malicious attacks being the number one cause of privacy issues—it’s just common sense that our systems need to be set up with that in mind.

For this reason, CIOs must understand all of the types of data under their care and where that data is located. Data needs to be prioritized, as some data will be more important to secure than other data. Things get even stickier in this scenario since data is being created all the time, making it even more challenging to do this every day.

How to Classify Data

There are four main types of data: public, internal, confidential, and restricted. Even with these four main types, it’s still extremely hard to classify data because most of it is unstructured.

Difficulty also presents itself in the sheer number of devices in a large-sized company, which begs the question: How can the CIO get visibility and security measures onto every laptop, phone, cloud storage, and external storage?

And speaking of facing challenges, remote work has also been a huge pain point for CIOs in protecting data privacy and classifying data. The reason for this is that many enterprises weren’t yet prepared or set up to safely allow their employees to access business-critical apps and files from home.

Bringing Security to Organizations

Even though data security is clearly a giant monkey on the back of CIOs and organizations everywhere, you can adopt a few best practices to hedge your bets and protect yourself against unwanted breaches. Among these include:

• Changing (and not repeating) your passwords regularly and making them more complex
• Using encryption
• Enacting company-wide policies about screen locking
• Retiring old computers correctly
• Using zero trust architecture

As Vice President Global Chief Information Security Officer and 2018 Global CISO of the year, Stephane Nappo said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and a few minutes of cyber-incident to ruin it.” So make sure your organization is playing it safe.

Need support and advice as you make moves to amp up your data security? Connect with us today.