Data is the lifeblood of organizations, enabling their operations and decision-making. In evolving workplaces where teams are distributed and working digitally, growing threats are posing risks to data confidentiality. Organizations need to adopt robust security practices to negate the impact on data privacy and ensure operational security.
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Data is at the center of every business operation and one of the most valuable assets to be protected from malicious activities that can impact organizations with increasing regulatory fines, reduced client trust, and lost revenue. A 2024 security report by Proofpoint reveals a single data loss instance can impact 56.6% of business revenue. In evolved workplaces where growing distributed and digitized work has also given rise to threat incidents, the absence of a robust security system can cause organizations the risk of unauthorized data exposure and unrecoverable loss of critical business information.
What causes data loss
Not aligning with security best practices is the key reason for data loss. A security report by Proofpoint finds that careless users (70.6%) cause the most data loss incidents. The same report adds that compromised systems (48.1%) are the second most data loss threat to businesses.
What is the difference between data loss and data breach
The two terms are often used interchangeably but they refer to distinct phenomena as data loss happens when systems or devices in which it is stored get corrupted, damaged, or lost, while data breach involves unauthorized access to confidential business information.
Forms of data loss
Data loss can vary based on the instances and happen involving different scenarios, including:
Device-caused data loss
Data loss resulted from some activity that happened on a device or endpoint (including, a laptop, tablet, mobile phone, server, IoT devices, etc.) connected to the network. In the unfortunate event of device loss, damage, or theft, the data stored in the endpoint or device may become inaccessible.
Network-caused data loss
Loss of data due to an information breach from outside the organization refers to a network-caused information leak.
Organizations that adopt effective security and compliance solutions can gain the advanced capability to reverse data loss instances and avoid impact on critical business information.
What are the factors that can lead to data loss
Causes for loss of data can vary from negligent or accidental insiders to intentional or malicious actions and non-returned or lost business devices.
Negligent or intentional insiders
Careless insiders deleting important files, downloading malicious apps, or clicking on a spurious link can lead to potential harm to the data privacy of concerned organizations and disrupt their business operations.
Credential theft
Malicious actors may take advantage of their authority for personal or financial benefits to help some third party gain access to vital internal business resources and cause sensitive data exposure.
Non-returned assets
Unfortunate instances of lost or stolen business devices hamper an organization’s ability to gain access to the stored details bound to its clients, projects, or users in non-returned official devices.
How to control data loss
Revisit your security posture and fix the potential gaps to strengthen your immunity against fatal data loss threats.
Follow the best security practices
Ensure data backups regularly and store them in a secure place with zero trust authentication and secure access to authorized personnel only.
Adopt advanced monitoring solutions
Find an effective employee monitoring system to track workforce activities and stay alert of risky actions leading to data or device threats.
Ensure compliance and data privacy
Ensure compliance with leading security standards to help align your workforce with data privacy best practices.
Need for wAnywhere to predict and prevent data loss
You can leverage advanced compliance solutions with AI security from leading employee monitoring software for real-time tracking and automated violation detection to predict and prevent actions leading to data privacy threats.
AI-powered security and compliance
Effective data loss prevention solutions with predictive and behavioral analytics can help you respond ahead of threats and enable compliance with established industry regulations including GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and more.
Real-time activity monitoring
With live activity tracking, you can gain the capability to respond in real time and stop threats before they can cause damage. It enables you to prevent potential impact on data privacy and negates possible disruption to business operations.
Automated response and activity blocking
Set automated detections against risks, including an unknown person at the desk/multiple persons around the desk/employee leaving the machine unattended/mobile use at work, and define self-triggered response, including screen black/block/OTP lock, against non-compliant activities to enhance workplace security and operational efficiency.
Control anomalous behavior and prevent risks to your business data
With ever-present threats of data loss and growing instances of information breaches, now is high time to stay alert against malicious actors and activities to block the actions leading to business data or device theft. Leverage AI security solutions to ensure compliance and data privacy. Start your wAnywhere experience today to know what security advantages you can gain with the trusted employee monitoring software by the leading BFSIs (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) worldwide.
Is data loss a threat? What are the effective measures to prevent the impact?
Data loss can expose critical business information to unauthorized or malicious actors who can exploit it to impact business operations and reputation. You can integrate real-time monitoring and automation detections into your critical workflows to stay alert against actions leading to risks and stop them before they can cause damage.
What harm can do the loss of business data to a company? How wAnywhere can be an effective security solution?
Business data includes critical client and user details that, if lost, can expose sensitive data to unauthenticated or malicious actors to gain advantage of the opportunity for personal or financial perks and cause unprecedented harm to concerned organizations. You can get AI-enabled advanced predictive and behavioral analytics with the wAnywhere monitoring tool to respond ahead of threats and control non-compliance or data breaches to avoid a potential loss to your business.
