The use of different computing systems, the Internet, and tons of mobile devices give freedom to the users. But it also imposes certain risks on everyone who enters the global Internet community. Data leakage is a common issue big and small companies try to cope with these days.
You might have heard about the multiple cases when data was stolen or leaked from even the major companies, what to say about the small companies. How to prevent data leakage and protect yourself from having your personal information lost? This guide will clarify the details and help prevent damage to your data.
Data Leak Definition: What’s the Concept?
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What does it mean if your data has been leaked? It means there was an exposure of data due to the overlooked issue with the operating system or other technical problems. These days, it mostly happens in the technical world, and not in the physical one.
You can have your data lost internally. But it’s also possible that your information is stolen via the hardware tools. How do you protect your computer and prevent data loss? Before we answer this question, let’s check what the most common data leak types are.
Data Leak Types: Top 3 Examples to Learn About
If you want to prevent data leakage, you should learn more about the most common types of data leakage. There are many more of them, but these types occur most frequently. It’s easier to keep track of what’s going on with your data when you are familiar with the basic data leak types. Let’s check them in detail.
Customer data
The stats and different research analyses prove the Customer Data breach to be the largest data leak target. What does it comprise? There are different types of information. Nevertheless, personal details can differ from companies, there are unanimous types and groups of data. It could be a phone number, email address, or a regular address you live in. It can be a user name, password, or payment history on your phone.
Your card numbers might also be a target of data leak hacking attacks.
Analytics
Analytics consists of the data because it represents the researched information from the web. Thus, customer behavior or psychographic data might be easily leaked, unless it’s well protected from the attacks.
Company information
This is the type of internal hacking activity. If the company information has been leaked, there was probably someone who gave the instructions and guidelines to the hackers. This is another concern to be worried about. In general, these are internal conversations, marketing techniques, and strategies. These could also be performance metrics.
How to Protect Sensitive Data and Prevent Leakage
How can we prevent confidential information leakage? You might think that sharing your personal details on the web is risky. Yes, it may be dangerous, unless you know how to prevent your data from being leaked.
There are specific data leakage prevention tools and techniques to help you feel safe on the web and ensure the best and most secure user experience. You can’t help sharing your data online. But you can learn how to make your web surfing safer.
Access and use monitoring
It’s important to keep track of all the traffic that happens within the company’s network on the web. To breach a system, a hacker needs some time. It depends on the scale of the hacking activity. One way or another, by monitoring the access activity and regular user behavior, it’s easier to spot the issues and fix them.
VPN
There’s another way to make your user activity less exposed to the hacking attack. If you use VPN app for Mac, you will feel safer. It also works for Windows. And Linux users can benefit from it, too. You can install VeePN to any operating system. If you get the best VPN for Mac OS, your data is securely encrypted. But there’s not only a VPN for Macbook. You can use the tool for PC with any operating system. All you need is to install VPN and implement it during the work with the data.
How does it work? It will protect the general access to the network and prevent the connection from being lost or damaged. The IP address won’t be seen by random internet users. The VPN download practice is one of the best ways to ensure secure surf on the web.
Encryption use
Whether you manage a small business or work in a big company, there should be well-developed encryption. It works the best for any sensitive or vulnerable information you may possess. How does it help? When the data is properly encrypted, it can’t be read. Any information will be useless if it’s been carefully encrypted by the experts.
Network lock-down
If you want to prevent data leakage, there’s one critical issue. Some users are familiar with the necessity to lock down the network. But others don’t know how important this step is. If you want to prevent data leak cases, it’s better to teach your team or teach yourself how to lock down the network properly.
Summary
What’s a data leak? Now you know the answer to this question and understand how important data protection practice is. Any information can be stolen, so overlooking the data use, traffic, and access within the network might result in a complete failure. For this reason, there are helpful pieces of advice for anyone concerned about information leakage.
In the article, you will find the relevant types of data leak examples. It must help you orientate the topic and know what to prevent in the first place. Here you can also benefit from the useful tips on how to protect your details on the Internet. Make sure to use these tips and prevent any harmful hacking attacks.
