Posted: February 19th, 2022

Information Security-Overview on Risks

Information Security-Overview
Technology has increasingly become an integral part of mankind’s daily life. Its use has been incorporated in enabling the efficient transfer of data and communication on a large scale. The only demerit that comes with this inter-connective advancement is the need for implementation of data security to combat associated risks. Date security refers to the process of protecting data from destructive forces such as unauthorized access and intentional or unintentional data corruption throughout its lifecycle. It entails data encryption, tokenization, and management practices that protect data across all platforms and applications. Data risk, on the other hand, is the potential for loss related to data which defines failure in storage, use, transmission, management and security of data. In the age of technology cyber risks such as data breach, data leak or loss, data corruption, data rot, and dark data risks pose challenges and opportunities for enabling management of vital information and privacy.
Date breach is the most widely known example of unauthorized data access. It applies to data that is confidential and access controlled. Various ways through which breach could occur are such as unauthorized sharing of trade secrets to friends by a person in an organization as well as the various forms of hacking such as leaking of authentication credentials through the hacking of email services or publication of private photos from a hacked cloud storage app (Zhang, 2018). They occur in an instance where individuals want to exploit system vulnerabilities, are using weak passwords or where attackers use targeted malware to take advantage of a system. This poses a great risk since one may not know what method attackers may use to cause a data breach. The only way one can protect themselves is by use of strong secure passwords, back up files; use only secure URLs as well as ensuring safe wiping of hard drives before disposing off gadgets containing personal information. Many organizations are tightening security measures to better protect their data. Laws are also being set up as a warning to curb against security breaches. Also being alert towards any fishy activity on one’s system can greatly reduce the number of losses to be experienced.
Data loss identifies the inability to access data that one previously possessed. It could be a result of a number of reasons such as physical destruction of storage devices or data could also be lost in transit to a specified location. This offers great risk to data security as it could lead to the loss of vital information that might be beneficial or be needed for reference purposes in the future. Data leak also presents a form of data loss where certain elements of data are lost in transit from one location to another or disappear due to flaws in the carrier system. These elements may also be vital in completing the information required and may require one to be vigilant with their data to prevent it. This form of risk may occur accidentally or intentionally through individuals or through electronic communications with malicious intent. Phishing attacks present a high data leakage success rate and the only methods of curbing this would be classifying vital information in one group and limiting its access as well as being vigilant in the maintenance of systems that carry these data to ensure zero vulnerability spaces.
Another risk that causes vulnerability is data corruption. It is an extension of data breach it defines an instance where data becomes physically damaged due to errors within its life cycle and present unintended changes to the original data. Often the errors occur without notice, however; these could be detrimental towards the authenticity of data or could lead to system failure if the system needed the data for its proper functioning (Navarro-Arribas, & Torra, 2014). In an instance where malware possesses a system, or there is the use of poor software and hardware data corruption is bound to occur. A power outage could also result in data loss since it could interfere with data transportation. Data is the oil that fuels modern day businesses of all kinds this makes data corruption a very costly affair whenever an organization is presented with the challenge. It could lead to heavy losses in revenue and thus preventive measures may need to be put in place to curb its occurrence. Use of data recovery software can assist in restoring data to its original form while using state of the art security tools and the cloud could assist in the protection of data against corrupt actions.
Since risk defines the probability of losing something of value, one may present data rot as a type of risk. Bit rot entails the deterioration of integrity of stored data on a medium. It could be increased by wear and tear as well as contaminants, background radiation and high heat (New Zealand Government, 2018). Previously people were highly dependent on physical storage methods for their data storage. Use of floppy disks and Compact disks was very prominent but over time new methods of storage emerged and this predominantly became a problem of the past. It is essential for an administrator to frequently carry out checks on their hardware store to ensure no rot, leak of loss has occurred over the dormant data. Other risks include dark data risks, deanonymization, compliance risks as well as privacy risks.
The term dark data may come off as a scary term, however, it defines data that is assimilated via a number of computer networks but then again can be recycled to deduce insights for decision making. The information may offer potential value to the organization but can remain untapped for long periods of time (Navarro-Arribas, & Torra, 2014). Its existence may be driven by the inexpensive data storage methods available. The issues dark data may present maybe the fact that it offers susceptibility to attack and also data rot over long periods of time. A way to prevent the pile-up of dark data is to ensure that one goes through all data before disposing of and to ensure safe disposal of the data, this could consequently save a lot of storage space whilst protecting against vulnerabilities that may result.
Conclusively, it is essential to note that data is a vital asset to any individual or organization. It must, therefore, be protected. Cyber risks like data breach, data leak or loss, data corruption, data rot, and dark data risks pose drastic challenges towards the safeguarding of data. It is therefore essential to properly implement the data protection structures to ensure the authenticity of data as well as try to combat the risks through careful protection of data. Ensuring only authorized persons can access data especially vital data will allow users to enjoy better quality risk-free data.

References
Navarro-Arribas, G., & Torra, V. (2014). Advanced Research in Data Privacy. Basingstoke, England: Springer.
New Zealand Government.(2018). Privacy risk and opportunity identification. Retrieved from https://www.ict.govt.nz/assets/GCPO/Privacy-risk-and-opportunity-identification.pdf
Zhang, D. (2018, October). Big data security and privacy protection. In 8th International Conference on Management and Computer Science (ICMCS 2018). Atlantis Press.

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