According to a recent survey conducted by Accenture, it is seen that over 70% of financial services organizations neither have a clear plan nor the resources needed to handle data privacy risks for the next one year. This alarming revelation shows how companies and individuals across the world are vulnerable to numerous and emerging data threats, in the absence of an appropriate data security plan.
The report studied over 100 privacy executives within the financial services spaces in two major continents. Specifically, in the banking, insurance and capital markets, across Europe and North America. The survey revealed how companies must rethink the way they employ, store and protect customer data in the light of recently implemented regulations such as CCPA and GDPR.
During the survey, when asked which threats required the most effort to remediate over the next 12 months, participants revealed privacy risk monitoring accompanied by the accuracy of records processing as areas that needed significant attention. Despite the renewed regulatory focus, it is disappointing that financial services firms have not yet made data privacy a top priority.
At the same time, it is also essential for institutions to look beyond compliance risks and view the more significant opportunity of elevating customer experience around data privacy. But if data privacy is not the top priority for organizations right now, companies may find it even more challenging to deal with a new class of privacy risks that could emerge in the coming future. Companies must understand that consumers are willing to share their data if they find value in it through numerous value-added services, offers, competitive pricing and security. By following how customers value data privacy, companies can have a clear opportunity in differentiating themselves.
Data life cycles and data security
When experts talk about data security and privacy, it is often viewed as though the security solution would cover all aspects equally. However, all data is not equal, and hence it must be handled differently in every stage of its lifecycle. This includes from the time it is created, stored, used, shared, archived and disposed of.
Another new study from Netwrix reveals how most companies have suitable data security systems in place for some stages but falter in other areas. This haphazard approach makes all data vulnerable and could have severe implications on data privacy compliance. Without in-depth visibility into every process and user activity, companies will continue to struggle to deal with the central questions of security, such as who, what, why and when. Unless these organizations gain a deeper understanding of how their data is protected across all stages of its lifecycle, such data will always be at risk.
Curtailing the risk
With the rise in data privacy laws across the world, each of them have unique requirements and are useful in cutting down the risk of a data breach. This is why companies must have an in-depth understanding of every stage of their data lifecycle to meet present compliances today that can give them a head start on how to prepare for future compliances and laws that are currently in the works.
And while experts recommend that every organization must secure their data, organizations must first know how to find and classify the confidential information, which includes copyright data, intellectual property rights, customer information and financial data. After sorting and segregating sensitive information, companies can now prioritize which information must be secured and established with the right permissions and access controls for such data. Companies must also control how their confidential information is used, ensuring it does not go out of secure locations and auditing the level of data access and usage policies from time to time whenever needed. The better a company understands it's a data lifecycle stages, particularly in storage and transit to third parties, the more effective a data security program can be. A pervasive solution to that effect can be digital rights management.
Knowing your data privacy rights as a consumer
As a consumer and an organization, you have the right to keep your data safe, no matter where it lies. This includes your right to access and stop unwanted access to your data easily, and to access, correct, update, delete or request access to your confidential information. Your digital rights are crucial to preserving and using your information. (Digital rights management) DRM can help protect your personal information. These include:
- Protecting the personal information you enter on the network
- Protecting and blocking unpermitted viewers from accessing your data
- Building authentication for users to enable their online interactions to function properly
- Mechanically suppressing non-essential information and blocking bandwidth for inappropriate actions
- Purging data when no longer needed.
Regardless of where your data lies, you can easily protect your data and documents through using DRM.
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