Data security includes all technical measures that guarantee the protection of data. It ensures that information is protected against unauthorized access, manipulation, and loss.
Core objectives of data security
Data security is crucial for ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data. These three characteristics represent the core objectives of data security. They are defined as follows:
- Confidentiality: Only authorized individuals may access the data. This prevents unauthorized access and protects sensitive information.
- Integrity: Data must remain unchanged and correct, protected from both manipulations and technical errors.
- Availability: Data should be accessible and usable at any time when needed.
Measures to ensure data security
There are various technical and organizational measures to ensure data security. These include:
- Physical access control: This ensures that only authorized persons have physical access to data processing systems.
- System access control: It protects IT systems and data from unauthorized access.
- Data access control: It restricts permissions to the necessary minimum.
- Data transfer control: This ensures that data cannot be read or copied without authorization during transmission.
- Input control: It provides traceability of who entered which data and when.
- Contract control: This ensures that data is processed only according to specifications.
- Availability control: This includes measures for data recovery in case of physical or technical problems.
- Data separation: Data for different purposes must be processed separately to avoid mixing.
Risks and threats
Data security faces challenges from technical vulnerabilities and unauthorized access, especially on the internet. For example, software can be insecure if it doesn’t store data correctly or loses it. Therefore, regular updates and security checks are essential.
Difference from data protection and data sovereignty
While data security concerns the general technical protection of all types of data, data protection focuses specifically on protecting personal data. Data protection also regulates the collection, processing, and transfer of this data to protect privacy. Data security provides the technical framework, while data protection also covers legal and ethical aspects.
Data security protects data technically, while data sovereignty ensures control over its use and storage: The latter allows natural and legal persons to determine where and how their data is stored and who can access it.
Conclusion
Data security is an integral part of modern information systems. It protects data from threats and ensures the operational capability of companies. By combining technical measures and organizational processes, risks can be minimized.
