Information security is an essential driver for the protection of privacy and personal data. In addition, most organizations face an ever-changing landscape affecting their businesses. The uncertainties created by such changes will affect how the organization must react to ensure that its information is adequately protected.
Therefore, a specific framework that enables information security managers to manage uncertainties that may affect their organization’s information security over time is needed. Such a clear organizational framework is qualified as a risk management process relating to the security of information systems.
There are three generally accepted elements for adequately ensuring information security:
Confidentiality: so that only the right people have access to information;
Integrity: so that only the right people can update information adequately; and
Availability: information is available when needed.
So, the best and most efficient way to relate information security with data availability is to use cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity isn’t just about privacy, and here’s why!
Did you know that cybersecurity is more than protecting the privacy of your information? Cybersecurity is also a matter of the availability and integrity of data!
Most companies will start by protecting confidential information (human resources files, strategic data, etc.). To ensure data security and integrity, they will implement a strict access policy and allow access only to people who need this data for their work.
Moreover, most people have understood the importance of not disclosing their personal information to others for fear of identity theft.
These are good basic practices, both in personal and professional life.
However, when we talk about cybersecurity, we are talking about much more than that!
As a cybersecurity specialist, I protect the Availability, Integrity, and Confidentiality of IT systems. It is what we call in the beautiful jargon of our community: the DIC.
Availability and integrity are sometimes lesser-known notions of cybersecurity, but they are just as important; they directly affect your day-to-day activities.
That’s why worrying about cybersecurity is essential for ALL businesses, even those that don’t collect confidential data.
Here’s why.
The Availability Of Your Data: Make Sure Your Website Won’t Stop Working!
The availability is to guarantee access to the data at the place and at the time envisaged. Nowadays, when most of a company’s data is found on computer systems, this notion takes on even more meaning. Imagine a store whose website drops on Boxing Day itself! Customers have become accustomed to being able to browse, make decisions, and shop at all times. You risk penalizing your business if your website is unreachable for a few hours here and there.
However, it is not just websites that are targeted. Think of your corporate email system crashing on a Monday morning and all of your employees twiddling their thumbs. Or even worse, your invoice system, which is inaccessible for hours just the week you have to send all your monthly invoices! The nightmare!
However, applying good cybersecurity practices is precisely to ensure that no interruption of the systems essential to your mission will occur to reduce the impacts on your company’s productivity, revenues, and reputation!
Your Data Integrity: The Art of Making Sure You Don’t Mistakenly Charge Each Customer $ 100 Less!
The principle of integrity is to ensure that the data has not been modified or deleted without intention. It provides that the data has remained reliable since it was created and that you can rely on it to make decisions. If your high-integrity data changes, you need to have a log that will take stock of who changed what at what time.
We are increasingly dependent on the information contained in computer systems; it quickly becomes chaos if we cannot be sure that the information in question is accurate.
Several cases of data breaches have surfaced in the media in the past year. Hackers have a technique called “defacement.” They replace the content on your website with other unrelated content (political, religious, or humorous content). A more subtle technique is to change only certain specific elements of a website, such as a blog post or the price of an article. It means that several users could view the wrong information or profit from the incorrect price for an extended period without you noticing the trickery.
On the other hand, several significant risks to the integrity of your data are also found internally with the potential errors of your employees. A careless mistake happens so quickly when entering content day after day. Without IT controls in place, it isn’t easy to validate the integrity of the information!
Information Security is Considered Data Confidentiality: Make Sure Your Competitors Do Not Come And Steal Your Customer List!
Confidentiality is no longer to be presented. The confidentiality function ensures that information is not disclosed or made available to an unauthorized person or computer system. Regardless of the field of activity, it is inevitable that you have in your possession certain confidential and exciting information for others. Here are some examples of this kind of information:
Personal information
- A name associated with a date of birth, a civic address, a bank account number, or a driver’s license number;
- Information contained in a passport;
- A social insurance number.
Confidential information
- Information related to a contract;
- A detailed description of a manufacturing process;
- Business development strategy of the company.
Better Ensure Your Information Security and Data Availability By Carefully Taking Consideration Availability, Integrity, And Confidentiality in Cybersecurity
We support you to assess your needs regarding your computer systems’ availability, integrity, and confidentiality. We know that the implementation of security measures at times seems restrictive and that in this context, we must find the right balance to maximize the return on investment.
For your business to be adequately protected, we can carry out a cybersecurity diagnosis for you, the objectives of which are:
- Identify situations that put you at risk of being the target of a cyber-attack;
- Evaluate your current security practices;
- To provide you with recommendations and possible solutions to reduce your risk.
