• Phishing

It’s the most common type of attack that hackers use to exploit your system integrity. They use social engineering techniques to fool you and reveal your information. It can be in the form of emails, malicious links, and
survey forms. By using this method, hackers lure you into giving away your credentials. Your account credentials, passwords, and sensitive information will compromise in an instant.

• Brute force attacks

It’s a tender approach based on guessing. The attackers use various hacking tools to guess your passwords. Though this method takes time but can hack into systems with easy passwords.

• Malware/Spyware

Out-dated devices running on old software are vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. Your device’s OS or software, wi-fi can have security gaps. You may ignore it but these flaws are an opportunity for hackers to data theft.

Acknowledging these techniques, you can create an effective data leakage prevention plan.

1. Create and adopt a Data Security Policy

Adopting a Data Security Policy (DSP) will make your security process systematic and easy to operate. Analyze your current assets and catch security gaps. Then develop a strategy to fill those flaws and make your systems secure.

2. Remain Up-to-date

Always use software with genuine license/serial keys. It will benefit you in getting regular security updates. Updates are critical for eliminating the possibility of data theft. Moreover, you’ll receive helpdesk support for backing up your issues.

3. Use encryption

High-end encryption is the best way to protect your files. It’s best to tackle human error. If a file is sent to an unwanted e-mail, it won’t open without the encryption key. Only you or the authorized employees will have the access to
the data.

4. Upgrade old devices

Outdated devices are vulnerable to information leakage. Due to no security updates, they can be easily hacked. You might even not get any support for those devices. So, investing in device up-gradation is a wise choice for both the short
and long term.

5. Restrict and automate

Implementing a DSP will help you regulate and restrict users from accessing data. You can check who has the access to distinct information.

Automation is another step to counter user-end mistakes. Use firewalls to protect servers, restricting malicious websites, and filtering e-mails.

6. Enforce (Bring Your Own Device) BYOD security policies

BOYD or Bring Your Own Device policy is used to narrow the data access among employees. It’s a trend where employees use their personal devices to access work-related information connecting to the organization’s network.

7. Use strong passwords and multi-factor authentication

Passwords are essential for keeping confidential data safe. But having a weak password is a major security hole. Keep your passwords strong using a combination of letters, characters, and symbols. You can take your security a step ahead
by enforcing multi-factor authentication. By adopting, biometric, dual authentication, and other channels you can exclude any chance of data security breach.

8. Train employees and Bring Everyone on Board

Educate your employees about DSP. Ask them to change passwords after certain intervals. They can use password managers to keep their credentials private. Aware them of social engineering attacks. So, they will be more
alter while giving away their information.

9. Track data usage

Track tour DSP policy. Check whether your goals are achieved or not. Prepare an effective plan to overcome any loopholes. It will help you in focusing only on necessary tasks.

10. Backup Plan

Do you have a backup plan? A backup plan is a must to recover from a major disaster. Keeping backup is very helpful in case of cyber disasters. As said,” Two are better than one”. Your backed-up data will always save you from losing your
information.