Role Of Human Bias In The Way Of Data and Document Security

How would you rate your company’s approach to data and document security culture, training modules, awareness programs, and employee behavior? In a recent virtual summit on the topic of human bias in data security, the common grounds that people build, use, and abuse technology was a theme that was agreed upon by all. According to statistics published by the UK Information Commission’s Office, over 80% of data breaches in 2018 were connected to human behavior.

And because data security practitioners cannot always focus on people when considering processes, technology frameworks, and systems in securing documents and data, it is time to change that perception.

How to Ensure Data and Document security?

According to cybersecurity experts, the individual or department leading the charge to embrace more accessible and robust forms of data and document security, usually the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) would need to look into this aspect.

When the CISO engages with other functional leaders in an organization such as human resources and the legal department, they can work together in building human-centric frameworks that can safeguard valuable company information from breaches and help stop document leakage. The point is to include staff members and employees to become part of the solution and train them in implementing data and document security.

The need for the hour is to raise awareness of data and document security risks. Organizations must also be taught how to act to cut down data risks that involve employees across all levels. Employees need to understand why data and document security is relevant to them and how they can be part of the solution.

For instance, understanding how phishing programs can be dangerous to the health of the company’s classified documents, data, and financials, must be imparted to employees through training and document security solutions. A combination of training and layout document security approach could be effective in thwarting most threats as compared to traditional defenses.

Also Read:- How to ensure data security during work from home

Almost every cybersecurity expert agrees that the fundamentals of a robust document security program should be emphasized in every organization. Not only that but a strong awareness program built around data security must also be focused on the organization’s culture.

Training and robust data and document security solutions must be complementary and not at odds within the company culture. For instance, in some cases, the organizational culture may be relaxed and open, but their data and document security posture could be locked down or restrictive.

To align cultures, companies must determine which employee behavior represents the organizational culture and then plan on how to raise training and instruct those behaviors to be in alignment with data security guidelines. Raising an awareness campaign that supports and connects to risk assessments and metrics can help track the success of data and document security within the organization.

But what if a large organization has numerous departments and pockets of individual cultures across the world? Then, management must look into getting feedback from employees stationed across the globe before promoting their messages. This means they must understand and convey to their remote employees what the company is trying to achieve and help the employees in working within these parameters while at the same time tailoring to suit the target audience.  Most remote employees for example would benefit from using secure document sharing software to enable them to securely share documents with other authorized team members and third parties.

It is essential to consider how your organizational data security culture is supportive of and not in clashes with your company culture. Besides, how you assess the performance of your training programs and make data-driven arguments to support these programs is equally crucial. As a proactive document security solution, PDF DRM can safeguard your valuable information and IP with real-time access control and enforceable document restrictions over how content is used. It provides you and your employees with secure document sharing, while you continue to focus on productivity rather than wondering about who is using your documents and how they are being used.

Given that local events and organizational mandates are requiring companies across the world to shift to a new way of remote working, such situations can result in uncertainties on how these recent changes could affect productivity. Through PDF DRM, you can ensure that documents can only be accessed by those you authorize and that document restrictions are adhered to. By applying insights and up-to-date threat and behavior intelligence to document security, you can be assured of a more robust document protection solution through PDF DRM.

Because the nature of security threats are continually evolving, it is crucial for every organization to adjust its mindset in keeping their documents safe. This includes accepting that change is and will always be fluid. Keeping this in mind, the core principles of document security through PDF DRM have been built with the needs of future requirements. It is true that the role of data security departments and organizations would grow from enforcing security policies to leading the company and their staff members towards better document usage behavior.