What is data protection management?

So, what exactly is DPM, and why should you care? Join us on a deep dive into the world of data protection management as we explore its importance, key elements, strategies, tools, and the process of building a robust DPM team. By the end of this journey, you’ll have a thorough understanding of DPM and its significance in safeguarding your organization’s precious data.

Understanding data protection management

Data protection management (DPM) is the guardian angel of your organization's information, constantly safeguarding and preserving the confidentiality, availability, and accuracy of your valuable data. DPM is an essential practice that involves the strategic use of various tools, techniques, business processes, and methodologies to ensure the overall security and integrity of data within your company. Regardless of where your data is stored—whether it's in an on-premises data center, a managed data center, or in the cloud—DPM encompasses a wide range of critical data protection processes, including:

1. Data lifecycle management: A comprehensive approach to handling data throughout its entire existence, from creation to disposal. It involves understanding the data's value and relevance at each stage and applying appropriate security measures and access controls accordingly. The data lifecycle typically includes stages such as data creation, storage, processing, transmission, archival, and eventually, secure deletion or destruction when no longer needed. DPM ensures that data is protected throughout this entire lifecycle, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access, loss, or corruption.
2. Handling of dispersed data in silos: Many organizations face the challenge of managing dispersed data in silos, where information is scattered across various applications, systems, and departments. This decentralized nature of data can lead to difficulties in maintaining uniform data protection measures and can increase the risk of data breaches. DPM addresses this issue by establishing a unified data protection strategy that encompasses all data sources, ensuring consistent security policies, encryption practices, and access controls across the organization.
3. Implementing data protection policies: A set of guidelines and rules that govern how data should be handled, accessed, and protected within the organization. DPM involves the creation and enforcement of these policies to mitigate data-related risks and maintain compliance with industry standards and best practices, including how to protect your cloud data. Such policies might include encryption requirements, password complexity guidelines, user access controls, data retention periods, and protocols for data backup and recovery.
4. Ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements: In today's data-driven landscape, organizations must comply with a multitude of data protection and privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Non-compliance can result in severe penalties and reputational damage. DPM plays a vital role in ensuring that the organization's data practices align with these regulatory compliance requirements. It involves regular audits, risk assessments, and ongoing monitoring to detect and address potential compliance gaps.

Why is data protection management important?

Data protection management protects your organization's most valuable asset—its data. DPM creates a secure data environment, instilling confidence among customers, stakeholders, and partners while safeguarding against potential data breaches and other security risks.

A strong data protection management system is like an insurance policy for your organization’s valuable data. It is essential for upholding regulatory compliance, deterring and reporting data breaches, and guaranteeing business continuity in the face of potential threats. A successful DPM strategy also protects your company’s reputation by demonstrating its commitment to data privacy—including cloud data privacy—and security.

Moreover, DPM goes hand in hand with data loss prevention (DLP). User consent plays a critical role in data use and collection, as organizations must incorporate privacy considerations into their interfaces and provide clear user notifications that explain the purpose of data collection. Failure by companies to comply with data protection regulations could lead to reputational harm and financial penalties, which underscores the importance of implementing data protection programs.

But why is DPM so crucial? In a world where potential data breaches and sensitive information leaks lurk around every corner, having a robust data protection strategy in place is vital. DPM helps organizations protect data by:

• Monitoring data protection programs
• Managing data protection programs
• Maintaining data protection programs
• Mitigating risks
• Ensuring the availability of data when needed

What are the key elements of data protection management?

To build an effective DPM system, several key elements must be considered part of an effective data protection management framework:

1. Data inventory and classification: One of the fundamental aspects of data protection management is conducting a comprehensive inventory of all data assets within an organization. This process involves identifying and categorizing different types of data, such as personal information, financial data, intellectual property, or sensitive business data. By classifying data based on its sensitivity and value, organizations can implement appropriate security measures and allocate resources more effectively.
2. Data mapping: Data mapping helps create a visual representation of data relationships within the organization, adhering to data protection principles. Protective technologies, such as encryption, access control, and data backup and recovery, safeguard data from unauthorized access, modification, or destruction. The use of data protection management software can help streamline these processes and ensure the proper functioning of your DPM system.
3. Risk assessment and mitigation: Conducting regular risk assessments is crucial to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities in the data environment. This involves analyzing various risk factors, such as cyber threats, insider attacks, physical security risks, and data breaches. After identifying risks, organizations can develop mitigation strategies and establish controls to minimize the likelihood and impact of data breaches or incidents.
4. Data access controls and encryption: Data protection management relies on robust access controls to ensure that only authorized individuals can access specific data. Role-based access control (RBAC) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) are commonly used to restrict access to sensitive information. Additionally, encrypting data at rest and in transit provides an extra layer of protection, making it challenging for unauthorized parties to access or interpret the data even if they manage to bypass access controls.
5. Monitor and audit: Finally, regular monitoring and auditing of data protection efforts are essential to protect data, ensure data protection, guarantee data security, and identify potential risks, allowing for timely corrective action in accordance with data protection guidelines.

What are data protection management strategies?

A data protection management strategy outlines the overall approach an organization takes to safeguard its data. An effective data protection management strategy is the foundation of an organization’s data security, involving several essential components that work together to create a robust data protection framework.

What should be included in a data protection management strategy?

A comprehensive DPM strategy should include:

• Data protection policies: Establish clear and comprehensive data protection policies that align with relevant regulations and industry best practices and ensure data is only accessible to those who need it. Ensure that employees, contractors, and third-party partners understand and adhere to these policies. Appoint a data protection officer or a responsible team to oversee data governance and compliance.
• Employee training and awareness: Educate all personnel about the importance of data protection, the potential risks, and the correct procedures for handling data. Regular training sessions and awareness programs help foster a security-conscious culture within the organization.
• Incident response plan: Develop a detailed incident response plan that outlines the steps to be taken in case of a data breach or security incident. The plan should include procedures for containment, investigation, communication, and recovery to minimize damage and potential legal consequences.
• Data backup and disaster recovery planning: Implement a robust data backup and disaster recovery strategy to ensure data availability and integrity. Regularly back up critical data to secure locations to prevent data loss due to hardware failures, ransomware attacks, or natural disasters.
• Audits and risk assessments: Conduct periodic audits and assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of data protection controls and assess privacy risks for individuals arising from the processing of their data. Compliance audits help ensure that the organization adheres to relevant data protection regulations and identifies areas for improvement.
• Vendor management: If the organization shares data with third-party vendors, conduct due diligence to ensure they have adequate data protection measures in place. Implement contractual agreements to hold vendors accountable for maintaining data security standards.
• Data retention and destruction: Develop clear guidelines for data retention and secure data disposal. Unnecessary data should be regularly purged, reducing the risk of data exposure and unauthorized access.
• Tools, technologies, and practices: Put the appropriate systems and tools in place that allow IT teams to control access to customer and employee-sensitive data.
• Continuous improvement: Data protection management is an ongoing process. Continuously monitor, review, and update the strategy to adapt to evolving threats and regulatory changes.

By incorporating these elements into a data protection management strategy, organizations can effectively safeguard sensitive data, maintain customer trust, and mitigate the risks associated with data breaches and security incidents.

What are some examples of data protection management tools, services, and solutions?

A variety of tools, services, and solutions are available to support your organization’s DPM efforts. Data loss prevention software, for instance, is designed to detect, prevent, and respond to data breaches, monitoring data in motion and alerting administrators of any suspicious activity. Encryption tools, on the other hand, use algorithms to scramble data, ensuring that only authorized users can access it.

Backup and recovery solutions, also known as backup processes, create copies of data in case of disaster or data loss, while data protection management platforms employ artificial intelligence or other automation to detect errors and optimize them. You can read further about what is cloud backup and recovery here.

When sourcing services, it's important to look for those that can customize to meet your unique security and compliance requirements. At Flexential, we have experts who will help you to choose and implement a backup solution that outfits your unique data retention and compliance requirements as well as help you further design and refine your disaster recovery strategy, including:

• Encryption in flight and at rest 
• Built-in resilience supported by a robust network backbone
• Off-site redundancy  
• Simplified backup and recovery management 

By implementing tools, services, and storage systems, organizations can strengthen their data protection management system, ensuring greater security and peace of mind.

How do you build a data protection team?

Building a robust data protection team is a vital step in implementing a successful DPM strategy. The team should be led by a Data Protection Officer (DPO) responsible for overseeing compliance efforts and coordinating data protection initiatives within the organization. Ensuring that employees are trained and aware of data protection policies and best practices is also crucial in maintaining a strong data protection culture.

However, creating and maintaining a data protection team and management strategy can be complex, time-consuming, and require skills that not many organizations have internally available. For these specialized tasks, an external service provider can be more cost-effective and can work with your team to create, maintain and test resiliency and recovery, including:

• Ensuring that the organization adheres to data protection laws and regulations
• Formulating and executing data protection policies and procedures
• Offering guidance and advice concerning data protection matters

With a strong data protection policy and management system in place, your internal teams—along with the right partner—can manage data protection efforts more effectively and help your organization stay on course in the ever-evolving landscape of data security. It is also important to know what is a disaster recovery team and how it is different from a data protection team.

Summary

In conclusion, data protection management and implementation is an essential component of any organization’s cybersecurity strategy. From understanding its importance and key elements to implementing data protection strategies, tools, and solutions, DPM plays a critical role in safeguarding sensitive information and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

Building a strong data protection team, onboarding the right technology, and partnering with outside resources where needed, are vital in maintaining a robust DPM system. By regularly monitoring and auditing data protection efforts, organizations can stay ahead of potential threats and continuously improve their data protection management. After all, in the world of data security, vigilance, and proactive action are the keys to success.

Are you prepared for the unexpected?

Here at Flexential, we know the importance of good data protection management to ensure all data and workloads are adequately protected. We empower our customers by offering a comprehensive suite of customized solutions tailored to their specific needs. Our FlexAnywhere Solutions, including integrated colocation and data centers, interconnection, cloud, data protection, and professional services, address key pain points and deliver tangible outcomes so that businesses can navigate their digital transformation journey with confidence.

Watch our on-demand FlexTalk, "Are You Prepared for the Unexpected? Best Practices in Data Protection,' to learn how to assess risk, plan for downtime, and implement a comprehensive data protection management and recovery plan at your organization.