Ransomware attacks, data stealer attacks, exploits for vulnerabilities: Even if the attacks are global, they are aimed at local, partly decentralized data storage. Here it is important to rethink data protection and use other solutions.
The Federal Office for Security and Information Technology (BSI) recorded 68 successful ransomware attacks, i.e. an average of more than one success for cyber criminals per week, in 2023. In the IT Security Germany 2023 management report, the BSI reports an average of 2000 new vulnerabilities in software products per year A quarter of a million new malware variants every month and every day. However, alongside the threats, data protection laws are constantly evolving.
The environment is difficult for data protection officers and cybersecurity experts and companies should continuously adapt their processes and IT structure. In an emergency, there is not only a risk of damage and operational downtime due to attacks, but also high fines for violations of the GDPR, the Federal Data Protection Act or industry-specific regulations.
Protecting data means understanding data flows
Data protection and security experts face a similar challenge on both fronts: threats are global and encountering increasingly local, decentralized data storage. New approaches are needed here. The prerequisite for protecting your own data is: understanding your own data flows, keeping the entire IT infrastructure up to date and working closely with partners. Mandy Andress, CISO at Elastic, explains: “As privacy – and control of data – becomes more of a focus, protecting personal data while adapting to new technologies and data processing methods should be a top priority. Data protection regulations have existed in Europe and the UK for some time, and are increasingly being introduced and expanded around the world. The same applies in the area of security: protecting privacy and adhering to compliance requirements are becoming increasingly important in order to ensure data security.
Privacy compliance starts with understanding your data flows and keeping your directories up to date, especially as modern environments become more complex and decentralized. This also applies to third-party risk management. Companies should work with their vendors to ensure both sides approach data security in the same way as partnerships and integrations become more ubiquitous.
...adhering to compliance requirements is becoming increasingly important, says Mandy Andress, CISO at Elastic
🔎 Comment from Mandy Andress, CISO at Elastic (Image: Elastic).
Additionally, data sovereignty is an increasingly important aspect of data protection, presenting new challenges for teams to maintain holistic transparency and analysis while still keeping data at its geographical origin. As threats become more global and data becomes more local, we must find new ways to balance these conflicting perspectives. At Elastic, this means providing users with a foundational IT architecture that allows them to have full legal control over their data in the country in which they are located, while at the same time enabling their analytics on all of their data expand worldwide.”
Data decentralized, analysis and protection everywhere
It is fundamental for companies to establish a forward-looking and flexible data protection strategy. Understanding your own data flows plays a central role: Where is data located and where is it used? Your own IT infrastructure should enable cross-location analysis of internal data, support storage at the geographical origin and at the same time ensure data protection.
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