Choosing the Right Data Security Solution

In a world in which the data threat landscape is becoming bigger, stronger, and more malicious, protecting your organization’s sensitive information from a breach is becoming all the more critical every day. Taking the proper steps to ensure that your data security strategy fits your industry and specific organizational needs is of the utmost importance to find solutions that will keep you the most secure with the least amount of headache. 

Why is Finding the “Right” Solutions Important?

When it comes to protecting your organization’s sensitive data, there is never a one-size-fits-all solution. Your cybersecurity strategy could look vastly different from your competitor’s when considering the size of your organization, your industry, customers, the types of data you create and share, and much more. Finding the solutions that are tailored to the needs of your organization will ensure that your organization, its employees, and its customers all remain safe from cybercrime. 

With that in mind, though, finding the best data security solutions for your organization in and of itself can be quite the undertaking. If your company has existing cybersecurity infrastructure in place, finding another vendor with separate, yet still compatible solutions can be a challenge. Furthermore, finding a new vendor and replacing your current infrastructure entirely can be even more of a hassle. 

Unfortunately, this does not take away the fact that having cybersecurity measures in place is steadily becoming more and more necessary. Cybersecurity Ventures’ latest prediction is that ransomware damages alone will have cost $20 billion in 2021. Meanwhile, phishing attacks have been on a steep incline as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they do not appear to be stopping any time soon. By 2025, global cybercrime damages are expected to top $10.5 trillion annually.

What this likely means for you is finding a vendor that can provide you with data security solutions right away and grow with you for the foreseeable future is of critical importance. Fortra's ever-growing, modular suite of data security solutions can be tailored to provide you with the necessary protections you need for your sensitive information now and adapt as your organization changes and grows. But where do you start?

5 Questions to Help You Choose the Right Solutions

Fortra has a large and still-growing suite of data security solutions that seamlessly integrate with one another and provide the world-class protection that your organization needs. That being said, even for IT and cybersecurity professionals, knowing how to choose the right solutions, let alone clearly defining your organization’s data security challenges, can be quite convoluted. We recommend asking yourself the following five questions to help make that process easier.

1. Are there any known weak points in your data’s life cycle?

If you are already aware of the most vulnerable points in your data’s life cycle, then you’re already a step ahead. Knowing if your data is most at-risk for compromise at the moment it’s created, when it’s in transit, or when it’s resting at its final destination is critical when choosing the most relevant solutions for your organization.

2. What security measures and solutions does your organization already have in place?

Ultimately, Fortra wants your data security solutions to be seamless and compatible with one another rather than cause friction. If you already have existing cybersecurity infrastructure in place, we’ll work to find the solutions that will complement those existing measures. If you’re shopping for several solutions at once, you can rest easy knowing that our data security solutions integrate flawlessly and are meant to work with each other now and in the future. If you find yourself needing more solutions later on, we can always discuss your future requirements and work with you to evaluate potential solutions to add on.

3. What sensitive data could cause your organization harm if compromised?

Once again, when it comes to protecting data, there is never a one-size-fits-all solution. Not all data security solutions will support all file types, and sometimes a solution will be better suited for data at rest rather than data in motion (and vice versa). Knowing what types of data your organization frequently uses is key in knowing what solutions will make the most sense for you.

Similarly, understanding which of those files and data are most sensitive is just as important. What data could cause the most damage to your organization if it were to be shared with the wrong people or be exposed to attackers? Will the loss of that sensitive data lose your organization’s competitive advantage, harm your employees and/or customers, or lead to financial damages?

4. Are you confident that your organization’s sensitive data is being handled properly?

Looking internally, are you confident that your organization’s employees are following the proper procedures with your sensitive data? Employee negligence is considered one of the biggest cybersecurity risks to U.S. businesses, and Shred-it found in their most recent Data Protection Report (DPR) that as much as 22% of data breaches are caused by employee error, and another 40% come from “trusted” insiders or external business partners. Understanding how much visibility you have over your employees and their actions is fundamental in deciding which data security solutions you may need.

5. Is your organization subject to regulatory compliance? 

Last, but not least, is knowing whether or not your organization is subject to compliance regulations. Regardless of whether you need to comply with PCI DSS, GDPR, CUI, or other requirements, you must find a data security vendor whose solutions address the requirements of those regulations, and if need be, help you to navigate the complexities of those regulations as well.