Data Protection: Past, Present, Future
Data is at the center stage of business innovation, and corporates need to protect their information at all costs. If your competitors were to get their hands on your customer data or information on your next product and service, they would use it to get rid of you. However, information security has come a long way and companies are now doing everything in their power to shield their data away from prying eyes.
Data Protection in the Past
Data protection has come a long way, and since the dot-com revolution, there have been practices in place to secure data. All that was needed back then was to classify data and specify different clearance levels for the different classes of employees within the organization. Unstructured data in different places makes it hard to protect and so structuring and classifying it was the best form of data protection. For this, companies hired data managers to back up and archive information, as well as be responsible on the security of the corporate data. However, advancement in technology has brought in a new era in data protection.
Present Data Protection Methods
While structuring data is still a viable method of protecting data, it is much simpler with the adoption of technology. Data storage and back up is now more advanced, and it is as simple as the click of an icon. IT departments are at the center of data protection using sophisticated hardware and software to copy, move, and do all that pertains to data management. The cloud has become a favorite option in the present, and with a proper firewall and security passwords, data is more secure than it was a decade ago. Data collection methods have also changed, technology such as IoT is collecting data discreetly, and only certain people with the proper clearance can access the data.
Future Data Protection Methods
IoT is still in its infancy, and it is projected that it will evolve to be a key data collection method. The incorporation of metadata will add enough intelligence, and this ensures that you do not have to worry about handling data and its protection. The metadata also in its infancy stage will have the capabilities to trigger automatic functions such as copy, move or do not move, as well as delete the data. The goal here is to create smart data with the capability of knowing what to do to avoid a data breach.
Due to the many threats to data, it is imperative to embrace the various protection methods to be on the safe side. Note that loss of one folder that contains confidential information about your business can cost you thousands of dollars to retrieve and prevent unauthorized use.
