Protecting Personally Identifiable Data (PII) on business systems: Why it's business-critical for Australian Companies
In today's digital age, companies collect, store, and process vast amounts of data, including personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, addresses, and financial information.?
However, with the increasing number of data breaches and cyber-attacks, the protection of this sensitive information has become a business-critical issue for companies operating in Australia.?
According to the Australian Information Commissioner, the first half of 2022 saw a 33% jump in large-scale data breaches. Over 40% of all Australians saw their date breached in that year.?
And the financial impact of a data breach can be severe for companies. The average cost of a data breach in Australia in 2022 was $2.23 million (USD) per breach, including costs such as legal fees, loss of customers, and damage to reputation.
In addition, companies can face penalties for non-compliance with privacy laws, which can result in fines of up to $50 million, three times the value of any benefit obtained through the misuse of information, or 30% of a company’s adjusted turnover in the relevant period.
Furthermore, the ACSC notes that cybercriminals are increasingly targeting small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) due to their perceived lack of cyber security measures. This highlights the importance for SMEs to implement robust security measures to protect PII.?
So, how can companies protect PII on their business systems? The ACSC recommends a multi-layered approach, which includes:?
For those businesses looking to conduct regular risk assessments, this might include implement Data Loss Prevention or a DLP. The challenge, however, is that this often does not account for pre-existing or acquired data – one of the reasons that Gartner’s Market Guide for Data Loss Prevention claims that a DLP is not enough to ensure your business is protected. ?
The other option is a manual scan of every existing data asset for PII, which for most businesses means thousands of pieces of data. This would mean accounting for?everything from opinion about an individual such as notes from a job interview, the ABN details of a sole trader, photographs, tags in social media posts and more. ?
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An alternate option is deploying software such as Frisk . ?
The software can be deployed to undertake a detailed audit of stored data to identify the location and categorisation of PII, and utilises advanced technology to:?
Protecting PII on business systems is business-critical for Australian companies. With the increasing number of data breaches and cyber-attacks, the financial and reputational impact of a breach can be severe. ?
If your business could have un-protected PII in its business systems, now is the time to protect it. Contact us, or schedule a no-obligation demonstration of what Frisk can do. After all, there are now more than 50 million reasons to do it. ?
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