The issue of protecting sensitive data is challenging for every organization, given how essential data has become to digital businesses, ecommerce brands, and financial institutions. Unfortunately, data theft due to breaches, leaks, exposures, and other compromises are all too common in the digital landscape, meaning organizations are failing to establish effective security postures. The ultimate cost and consequences of data breaches can be far-reaching and even permanently damage a company’s reputation.
There is a growing consensus that if a set of data does not add value to an organization or enable essential operations, it should not be stored. However, if an organization does decide to store data, there are responsible steps that can be proactively taken to ensure the data is protected. In fact, many industry best practices can help satisfy relevant regulatory compliance obligations, too. For example, leveraging additional security measures such as format-preserving encryption or tokenization meets common security requirements for data protection while keeping elements of the original data, which retains its usefulness to the business.