The importance of data compliance and privacy cannot be overstated. Data has become an essential part of our lives, while becoming increasingly vulnerable to theft, manipulation, and misuse. Whether big or small, this rise in data theft has, even more, pushed all companies to protect their users’ data.
Data breaches can have severe consequences, including financial losses, damage to reputation, and also legal repercussions. Therefore, it is vital for organizations to establish data compliance policies and procedures to safeguard the information they collect and manage.
iPC Scholar is Impelsys’ flagship knowledge delivery platform and is designed to provide an intuitive and secure experience. It has security features and protocols to safeguard sensitive information and is compliant with all relevant data regulations, including GDPR and CCPA.
So, what is data compliance and privacy?
Data privacy or information privacy is about protecting the data (personally identifiable information) stored on any computer system. Data compliance ensures all organizations or businesses put processes in place. And adhere to the various regulations and standards to maintain the integrity of personal data. Companies protect their users’ data by putting the right processes and regulatory compliance in place.
In today’s world, where data breaches and cyber-crime are on the rise, it is crucial to ensure that personal information is collected, stored, and also used responsibly. Data compliance helps organizations to establish safeguards against unauthorized access, use, and disclosure of personal information.
Data compliance refers to the process of adhering to rules and regulations that are in place to protect data privacy, security, and integrity. This includes complying with legal requirements, industry standards, and company policies to ensure that data is handled safely and responsibly.
The laws or standards dictate the type and criteria for protecting sensitive data. Every business needs to assess its compliance requirement and meet the standards.
They may be exposed to hefty penalties for violating or not following standards. For, example, under GDPR, fines go up to €20,000,000 or 4% of a company’s annual global turnover.
Data privacy regulations vary from country to country, and it is crucial for businesses to understand these regulations and apply them. Every business must identify the data, classify it as sensitive or non-sensitive, and implement the right security measures.
So, when an email address or financial data of a user is captured, the level of security measure adopted to encrypt the information differs. Both PIIs are secured; however, the security measure varies.
How can data privacy and compliance be achieved?
Data compliance policies and procedures help in ensuring that the data is not tampered with, manipulated, or destroyed. Data compliance can be achieved by putting in place proper practices, policies, workflows, and standards to protect the data.
Businesses in the first place need to:
Understand and Identify: After identification, categorize the data into sensitive and non-sensitive. Then, devise a protection plan for each category. The protection plan should be implemented when the data is discovered or identified and categorized.
Strategize Data Compliance: Data compliance strategies are important to lower the chance of data breaches. One such strategy can be masking the data with a unique identifier or through encryption so that the information becomes anonymous to the user. This is also referred to as tokenization.
Technology Upgrades: Businesses must upgrade their software packages and IT infrastructure. Older versions might be vulnerable to theft/misuse. Ensure that a robust security compliance process is in place.
How seriously does Impelsys take data compliance?
We do not compromise on data security. We increase trust with our customers and stakeholders by securing their data. For us, data compliance is not the end of the mission. We look at data compliance as a continuous task.
At both the organizational and platform levels, the guiding principle is to prioritize security without making any compromises. “No compromise on security” is the motto we follow both across the organization and with our secure and intelligent platform IPC Scholar 3.0.
To achieve this, we employ highly advanced and secure cryptographic mechanisms, including AES256, a symmetric encryption algorithm. Additionally, we use salt keys, and public and private keys to further strengthen the security measures. AES256 operates using a fixed block size of 128 bits and a variable key size of either 128, 192, or 256 bits. The salt key protects against brute-force attacks and dictionary attacks.
The encryption and decryption process involves the use of a public key and a private key, where in anyone can use the public key to encrypt data but only the owner of the private key can decrypt it.
We ensure technology is not outdated and perform timely checks on the policies, procedures, and other controls that secure and protect our information assets. We maintain records of all the data protection measures and audit procedures.
Our approach is one of discipline, where we thoroughly evaluate potential risks, establish a secure environment, and continuously assess the effectiveness of security and privacy policies, procedures, and protocols. This ongoing assessment allows us to stay vigilant and make necessary adjustments to ensure our security measures remain robust and effective.
Authored by – Veena Terdal
Product Management Expert
