Today, data is a valuable commodity. Without it, company executives cannot make well-informed decisions, marketers won’t understand their market’s behavior, and people will have a hard time finding each other over social media platforms. But not all data are equal, which is why companies must have a data classification policy in place to safeguard the important and sensitive data.
What Is a Data Classification Policy?
Data classification policy is an organizational framework aimed at guiding employees on how to treat data. During the creation of a data classification policy, categories for data are created to help the company distinguish which data are considered confidential and which are considered public.
A data classification policy applies to all kinds of data acquired by the company. Both digital and written data must be inspected with equal importance and classified appropriately according to the data classification policy.
Data Classification Policy and Cyber Security
When it comes to cybersecurity and risk management against unexpected data breaches, data classification policies play an important role.
Data classification policies help rank-and-file employees, as well as C-level management, identify which set of data must be treated with utmost care. A well-crafted data classification policy would view corporate decisions as strictly confidential, and such highly-sensitive information must be secured with the highest possible form of encryption.
Data policies also shed light on what data are considered public, personal, confidential, and sensitive. Each classification is given a different level of security under the policy, and each data set is given to key personnel for compilation, collection, and storage.
Because of the nature of the policy, data classification plays a supporting role in a company’s cybersecurity program, making it harder for corporate spies to retrieve valuable company data. The data classification policy must also provide details on where the data should be stored and who has authority to retrieve them.
Data Classification Services
Information security firms know how risky data theft is for companies, especially for Fortune 500 companies that have a large volume of sensitive data. That’s why many information security companies offer data classification services to help companies reduce their overall vulnerability.
Data security experts provide data classification services that include tools, training, and collaboration with clients in the creation of a data classification program. Many data classification services build the data classification policy from the ground up and help with the implementation of the policy. They also conduct security checks to help ensure that the level of security does not fall.
Conclusion
With companies receiving a large volume of data every day, it’s difficult for company employees and managers to stop and think about how a piece of data must be classified and handled. Without a clear and well-structured policy in place, employees are left to decide how data are stored and managed.
If you believe in the importance of data security, then having a well-structured data classification policy and availing data classification services from data security experts will give your company the data protection it needs to prevent heavy damages in case of a data breach.
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