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The growing need to protect sensitive data

As digitalization increases, data has become an indispensable resource. This has also aroused the interest of criminals, as it is well known that profits can be made from data. Cybercriminals are particularly interested in data theft. Maximum profit is demonstrably achieved by hunting for intellectual property, customer, supplier, financial, or health data. Therefore, this sensitive data must be given special protection, even if your IT infrastructure has already been breached. Threat actors are also targeting data beyond the perimeter that is extensively stored and processed in cloud services and on mobile or IoT devices with varying levels of protection. This is where DCS comes in, providing protection directly to the data itself rather than to the infrastructure. A central component of this approach is consistently using cryptographic processes to encrypt sensitive data throughout its entire lifecycle. This ensures that, even if it is successfully compromised, sensitive data remains useless to unauthorized persons.

Countering risks from insider threats

It is a widespread misconception that sensitive data is secure when processed and stored exclusively within one’s own IT infrastructure, even with the most powerful and best-configured firewall. The risk posed by insiders is omnipresent, though this threat is often impossible to quantify due to the high number of unreported cases. These individuals can be current or former employees, business partners, or external project managers. This results in increased security risks, especially in public authorities or companies where employees pass through several departments or service providers are involved. With DCS, sensitive data receives fine-grained, context-based access control in addition to encryption. Authorizations are based not only on traditional roles but also on dynamic attributes such as location, time of day, and device. This allows access rights to be precisely adapted to actual requirements, effectively minimizing unauthorized access, whether unintentional or malicious.

Protect data when transferring, storing, or using it

It’s clear at this point that cyberattacks on valuable data cannot be completely prevented, either from the outside or the inside. Furthermore, sensitive data has long been located outside the secure IT infrastructure and therefore requires protection there, too. This makes it all the more important to minimize the impact in the event of an emergency. In a decentralized and highly networked world, a data-driven approach guarantees this protection regardless of storage location, transmission path, or use. If you are looking for sustainable protection for your sensitive data, DCS is the solution.