By now, you’ve probably figured out that no singular data security product can be fully responsible for all critical data security measures. Instead, consider each element of your data security environment as a key ingredient in a well-rounded recipe for protecting the digital information so critical to your organization’s well-being.
What Should be in Your Data Security Product Mix?
All the actions you take to protect your enterprise’s digital data from the unwanted actions of unauthorized users, whether malicious or by human error, are generally considered data security. How you actually secure this data – through defining and enforcing data protection policies and by implementing security software – forms the crux of your data security stance.
In a perfect world, one super-sized software solution would protect all sensitive data from any and all forms of cyberthreats. In reality, organizations are best served by thinking of the protection they need as a suite of integrated data security solutions. Data security is not only an organizational approach to protecting sensitive data, it also comprises the vetting and implementation of software solutions designed to secure data throughout all stages of its journey.
Where Does Managed File Transfer Fit Within the Data Security Framework?
An MFT solution should be a key component of your data security mix, deployed along with a few other key “ingredients” that help deliver end-to-end security to your data. So, what’s the recipe for this comprehensive security plan?
First, Identify and Classify Data
Start by identifying, classifying, and prioritizing the data that you need to protect – public, sensitive financial, and personally identifiable information (PII), for example. This can also include any unstructured data that could contain hidden metadata. Taking this initial data classification step can also help you with any industry compliance requirements.
Related Reading: 10 Tips to Protect Your Company’s Data in 2021
Ensure Data Content is Inspected with a DLP Solution
A Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution helps safeguard business-critical data by detecting and preventing accidental disclosure of sensitive data. This data security tactic also helps satisfy compliance regulations and data privacy laws, such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, CCPA or GDPR, that require secure environments and appropriate protection of data. DLP does so through features such as:
- Data redaction: Replacing sensitive text with a series of asterisks to protect PII, PCI, HIPPA, and sensitive information from being received or sent out.
- Document sanitization: Removing metadata from documents, such as track changes, author information, digital signatures, etc.
- Optical character recognition: Detecting text in images that can be contained in scanned documents and can redact them.
Pairing DLP with an MFT solution is a combination that elevates data security by adding an additional layer of protection to data that will be exchanged prior to the actual exchange through MFT.
Related Reading: 3 Powerful Examples of MFT and DLP in Action
Secure and Manage File Transfers with MFT
Once your data has been identified and classified as needing protection, and once any potentially sensitive data has been redacted, flagged, and approved for sending by authorized users, secure managed file comes in to play.
A robust MFT solution, like GoAnywhere MFT, provides organizations of any size with a user-friendly, centralized way to not only secure file exchanges, but also to streamline and automate them, reducing the risks inherent with human error.
With strong encryption protocols and workflow automation in place, MFT protects files both while in transit and at rest. Vulnerabilities, including unmanaged domains, devices, or applications are addressed by robust MFT solutions.
In addition, GoAnywhere MFT provides for the auditing and reporting functions often required for industry compliance adherence.
Related Reading: 7 Benefits of Managed File Transfer
Protect Data Wherever it Travels
As data is shared outside your organization, ensure it can only be accessed by approved recipients — and control what exactly they can do with the data. A powerful data protection solution with encryption and rights management capabilities will keep your crown jewels out of the wrong hands.
MFT is a Key Ingredient in Your Data Security Suite
As you can see, MFT is a primary aspect of a suite of solutions designed to comprehensively protect your sensitive data for end-to-end security. Understanding and classifying information as well as detecting and preventing data leaks set the stage for managed file transfer to secure and protect that data whenever it’s shared inside or outside of your organization.
Integrated security solutions ideally should be able to be deployed quickly and in a user-friendly manner for the best adoption and to make a measurable impact on security and productivity throughout the lifecycle of your data.
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