Operating systems and applications can always be reinstated, but their data is unique, which makes it the most important in your computer or network.
“Organizations must now maintain solid privacy measures, which include clear privacy policies, exclusion and compliance processes of consumer protection laws, to mitigate financial and reputable risks,” said IEEE senior member Kayne McGladrey , in an email to Techrepublic.
Here are 10 ways in which you can protect this data from loss and unauthorized access.
1. Protects everything with passwords
Password protection is the first line of defense against unauthorized access to your data; It also helps to increase multilayer security for your systems by allowing you to combine password protection with other security measures. Some companies are required to use password protection as part of compliance regulations, such as the general regulation of data protection.
To protect the password of your commercial data, it implements a strict password policy to ensure that employees create complex passwords. In addition, you must make your passwords update regularly.
2. Make a backup regular
Making a backup of your data early and regularly is an important component of a data loss prevention strategy. Data loss can occur due to cyber attacks, natural disasters, human error and other events. If you back up your data, you can restore them after losing data.
Although the manual backup works, you must also consider data backup solutions that automatically make a data backup based on a program that can be configured. The most sophisticated support solutions allow you to choose the data to make a backup.
3. Keep updated commercial software
Keep your updated commercial software to make sure you have the last security patches, error corrections and other updates to protect new and existing cyber security threats. Most cyber attacks exploit newly found safety vulnerabilities, so you are attentive to maintain its updated commercial software to the latest version.
See: Threat actors Jailbreak Generation AI to use it to create phishing emails, ignore the safeguards.
4. Use a VPN
Virtual private networks are excellent to keep commercial data safe. A VPN creates a tunnel encrypted for your data, hiding it to computer pirates and other malicious actors; It also helps minimize your online footprint.
A VPN is essential for employees who connect to commercial networks or access confidential files from their homes or while traveling. While you can use a free VPN service, ideally, you must invest investing in a paid VPN subscription of a good reputation provider. VPN versions pay off more reliable connections, dedicated servers and other premium features.
5. Install antivirus software
Modern antivirus software helps protect ransomware, spyware, Trojan horses, browser kidnappers and other cyber threats. While an antivirus software license for a business has a cost, it is a relatively small price to pay to keep your data safe.
If you are using Windows 10 or higher, you already have installed antivirus software. Mac computers have a relatively closed ecosystem and incorporated malware protection, but you can also buy additional antivirus defenses separately.
In the era of generative AI, antivirus protection is even more critical. Threat actors could use AI models in attacks, or committed data could poison the model if used for training.
“Once it is malicious content, the AI agent who is trying to train will also learn using malicious content,” said Ravi Srinivasan, executive director of the Votiro Data Protection Company, in an email to Techrepublic.
6. Use multifactorial authentication
A reliable way to protect your data is to use multifactor authentication on devices connected to the commercial network. With MFA, users enter a password and a unique access code sent to another device for access. In this way, the user needs at least two devices, or “factors”, to log in to the system.
MFA acts as an additional security layer for your data and is becoming a vital part of cybersecurity protocols for companies. Without using MFA, their data is still vulnerable to unauthorized access due to stolen lost or credential devices.
“Even if an organization is without password,” said Srinivasan, “will still have external users, external contractors and service providers that could still access their services using passwords as default.”
Therefore, he said, technological leaders should think of MFA as part of the solution to an access problem. Any way your organization uses to ensure your accounts, it is essential to have access and identity control of some kind.
See: Here is everything that you need to know about multifactorial authentication.
7. Make use of a public key infrastructure
A public key infrastructure is a system to administer pairs of public/private keys and digital certificates. Because the keys and certificates are issued by a third -party third party (that is, a certification authority, an internal installed on a certified server in its network or in a public), certificate -based security is stronger.
You can protect the data you want to share with another person by encrypting them with the public key of your recipient, which is available to anyone. The only person who can decipher him is the owner of the private key that corresponds to that public key.
8. Hide data with steganography
You can use a steganography program to hide data within other data. For example, you can hide a text message within a .JPG or a .mp3 music file, or even within another text file; However, the latter is difficult because text files do not contain many redundant data that can be replaced with the hidden message.
The steganography does not figure the message, so it is often used with encryption software. The data is estimated first and then hidden within another file with the Esteganography software.
Some steganographic techniques require the exchange of a secret key. Others use public and private key cryptography. A popular example of steganography software is Stegomagic, a free download that will encrypt messages and hide them into .txt, .wav or .bmp files.
Hide data can be particularly important if “the US organization[es] Real personal data (customers, patients, employees and any other person) to test and/or train AI tools, ”said IEEE Rebecca Herold member.
9. Educated yourself and your employees about cybersecurity
One of the most crucial steps to protect your data is to educate yourself and your employees about cybersecurity. You must promote a skeptical mentality when interacting with any website, email or unknown message; This includes learning the importance of following the best practices for data protection, such as not opening emails from unrecognized senders, and not clicking suspicious attachments.
See: Take advantage of this cybersecurity training package of Techrepublic Academy.
10. Looking for professional guidance
You can choose security consulting companies to evaluate safety vulnerabilities in your system and how to stop them.
If you need more comprehensive protection for your data, consider hiring a provider of managed security services; They offer a variety of security services, which include 24/7 security monitoring and incident management. In addition, if you want to ensure your digital assets, consider buying a cybersecurity insurance policy.
Generative AI brings new data privacy considerations
Although the same rules apply to generative AI, the new modern technology also introduces new data privacy concerns.
“Each company that integrates AI faces an unprecedented privacy challenge: essentially they are creating a bridge between the confidential data of their company and the public AI models,” said Oliver Friedrichs, executive director and co -founder of the Pangea cyber security firm Pangea , in an email to Techrepublic. .
When it comes to AI, appropriate authorization is key.
“In 2025, we are seeing a worrying trend in which exposure to confidential data through AI does not mainly come from sophisticated attacks: it is happening through basic supervision in authorization and data access controls,” he said Rob Truesdell, Director of Products of Pangea, in an email. “Organizations are discovering that their AI systems inadvertently share confidential information simply because they have not defined who should have access to what.”
Srinivasan said that change to AI requires data privacy considerations beyond what organizations considered before 2022; In particular, organizations can use commercial data to train internal models. Organizations must take into account data masking or anonymity to prevent private data bubbling in the production of the model.
“Data exchange technologies that preserve the privacy of the next generation, such as desidentification and anonymity, are developing to address the data privacy challenge raised by the generative AI,” said the song by Houbt Herbert de IEEE.
Organizations should ask: “How is privacy preserved before training it?” Srinivasan said.
“Companies must carry out exhaustive risk assessments to identify and mitigate potential damage associated with AI products, understand their limitations and potential misuse,” McGladrey said. “Maintaining a clear documentation of the metric and methodologies of the artificial intelligence system, together with the revelation of any known risk or limitations for customers, is essential for transparency.”
Transparency about what the generative AI can and cannot do is key, McGladrey said, as well as the fulfillment of state and federal privacy mandates.
