How to make your Business Intelligence System More Secure?
For businesses, the only thing worse than not getting the right information is someone else getting it before you. In a competitive world, where business intelligence and data warehousing are becoming essential elements for doing a successful business, you need to protect your data from hackers.
Business Intelligence – A Mixed Blessing?
With the advent of business intelligence or BI, companies across the world are emphasizing on data analysis and looking for ways to optimize productivity. Merely by housing a large amount of data poses a serious threat to your business. It increases the chances of your system getting hacked by thieves.
Hackers are interested in stealing information that has been already analyzed and ready-to-use because it has more value than the unstructured, unorganized data. And, the recent ransomware attacks are a proof that you cannot get complacent. You have to be one-step ahead in the race of securing business intelligence from unwarranted access.
Business Intelligence and Security
You may have a separate BI department to collect, store and analyze data, you may rely on your current IT team to handle business intelligence, or you may have a third-party BI solution that works for you. Security of your data is essential in every scenario. If there is a cyberattack on your organization, you may lose credibility and reliability. So, maintain the security of BI and do not lose focus from cybersecurity of your business.
1. Consider Data Encryption
The data in data warehouse includes large transactional data and it contains sensitive customer information as well as corporate information. So, it is essential to explore the risk associated with it. Consider your BI Framework in detail. You should not only safeguard the data while obtaining it, but you should also protect it every step of the way. Most businesses commit the mistake of encrypting data only when it is analyzed and unraveled by data scientists. But, we all know that every type of raw data is stolen by hackers and how it can affect your reputation. So, make sure that you encrypt your data and protect it.
2. Who can Access Data?
When it comes to business intelligence, remember the old saying: "Like everybody; trust no one." You may trust your employees with data insights but it doesn’t mean everyone in the organization has access to every data insight that is available. Inspect every employee’s role in BI framework and provide relevant access to BI modules and tools. The more number of people accessing BI tools, the higher are the chances of a cyberattack. Your employees may unknowingly use an infected drive or forget to update the password regularly which can make things easy for a hacker.
3. Train your Staff
Providing limited access to business intelligence tools is not the only solution to limit human errors. You need to train your employees and make them aware of the importance of data security. Explain them the correct way of using data. Motivate the staff to use centralized BI system instead of desktop tools such as Excel to work on data. Educate them about using the BI system to share information so that employees do not forward sheets, documents and PDFs and create potential data breaches. Also, when an employee shares a dashboard link with someone else, the other person will only be able to see information according to his privileges and nothing more.
4. Choose the Most Secure Cloud Solutions
Now, that most businesses are opting for cloud-based solutions to take care of their operations, it is becoming increasingly common to use cloud BI options. Businesses use cloud-based options because they are easy-to-use and they reduce cost phenomenally. Imagine saving a large amount of data in a physical form in your premises or using your servers to handle them! A cloud-based solution always seems to be a feasible option. But, you must remember that not every cloud is safe for crucial data. Talk to your cloud-provider regarding your needs and choose one that offers the most suitable solution. Consider adding more levels of security to your data in order to avoid unwanted access.
Higher Security; Better Business Intelligence System
Working with an efficient BI system ensures that you get the right information before anyone else. So, it is essential to keep the system secure. Assess risks and obtain apt information about potential vulnerabilities. Respond to the risks in timely manner and ensure adequate backup in times of cyber attack. And, remember keeping pace with possible threats and new security solutions is not just the responsibility of your cloud-vendor or your IT department. Each and every employee of your office must be committed to data safety and secure business intelligence system. Only then, you will be able to make the most of data insights.
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