Data Protection

Data protection is the relationship between collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. The challenge in data privacy is to share data while protecting personally identifiable information. 

Laws for protection of data exist to balance between the rights of individuals to privacy and the ability of organizations to use data for the purposes of business. The Data Protection Act (DPA) protects the privacy and integrity of data held on individuals by businesses and other organizations. The act ensures that individuals have access to their data and can correct it, if necessary. 

Here are few tips for Protection of data in organizations according to the Data Protection Act:

Data processing means obtaining, recording or holding the data or carrying out any operation on the data like - Organization, adaptation or alteration of the data, Retrieval, consultation or use of the data, Disclosure of the information or data by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, or Alignment, combination, blocking, erasure or destruction of the data.

•    Personal data of employees shall be processed fairly and lawfully.
•    Personal data should be obtained only for specified and lawful purpose, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose.
•    Personal data should be adequate, relevant and not in excess in relation to the purpose for which they are processed.
•    Personal data should be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
•    Personal data processed for any purpose should not be kept longer than is necessary after that purpose is fulfilled.
•    Personal data should be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under Data Protection Act.
•    Appropriate technical and organizational measures should be taken against unauthorized or unlawful processing of personal data and against physical loss of data like accidental loss, destruction, or damage to personal data.
•    Personal data should not be transferred overseas unless that country ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

The increasing use of information technology and the internet ensures that data protection remains one of the most important and relevant laws that online businesses are required to comply with. The internet is all about the transfer of information. Internet is also used for collection of information. Organizations must care about collection, storage and usage of personal data. This involves amending employment and marketing practices in addition to internal training.

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Secure Delete

Secure Delete is a way to make sure that when you delete a file it cannot be recovered. Understanding it is important to protect sensitive data properly. Deleting a file in Windows doesn't actually delete the data. When you delete a file in Windows explorer, the file is just moved to recycle bin instead of permanent deletion. Hence your deleted files are saved in the recycle bin till the recycle bin is too full or you delete it yourself. Even after deleting the recycle bin there is no guarantee that the file is deleted forever. Instead, the computer just made the file invisible to the user, and marked the part of the disk drive that it is stored on as "empty," meaning that it can be overwritten with new data. The deleted file can be overwritten within weeks, months or years. It is like moving out of an apartment by only taking name off of the door. Until someone moves in and replaces their own, all your stuff is still inside and available to anyone who knows how to look for it. 

Here comes the concept of Secure Delete. Deleting the file securely will just overwrite the deleted file on the spot and is not visible to the observer. It’s like emptying your apartment completely before someone stays in it. If someone comes finding you in the apartment, he will not be able to know that earlier you stayed in it. Deleting securely takes more time than normal deletion but it assures that the content can’t be recovered. 

Just overwriting the file also doesn’t help because where the operating system writes the data is not under your control. Overwriting can be done by creating a new file on hard disk, delete the old file or rename the new file to old file. This process is not under user’s control.  This is completely in hands of the operating system. Hence if you are planning to store confidential and highly secret things on your computer, you need the utility that deletes the data securely. It guarantees that the space the original file occupied on the hard disk is overwritten with other data.

There is one more factor to take into consideration. Hard disks are made up of magnetic material. And due to the property of magnetic material it might be possible to recover the overwritten data. Recovering data in this way is trivial which requires special tools and techniques, lot of money but it can be done. The solution to this is to ensure that your Secure Delete utility allows overwriting data multiple times.

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Anti Hacking

In reference to computer security, hacking refers to breaking into computer systems to steal data or disrupt the system in some way. Anti-Hacking is a general term given to the protection of computer systems from intrusion by unauthorized individuals or groups. It can include software and hardware firewalls, anti-malware software utilities and good security practices. 

Hacking is automatically accomplished through use of malicious software. Networks of hijacked computers are used to conduct large numbers of attacks to steal personal information for identity theft and fraud. Targeted hacking may be concern for large companies. For example, customer database can be hacked by the rival company for the sake of financial benefits. Hackers simply locate the unsecure networks, identify components of that system and launch attack those systems. This is greatest threat to the business interest activities. It helps you prevent, catch and fight back hackers.

Anti hacking is usually a process done for good purpose. It is also called ethical hacking.  If technology has produced network evils like hacking, then ethical hacking is the by-product. It is the type of hacking used to check the security of the website or data. It is done by company itself. Job of ethical hacker is to sit and find out the flaws of system like from where a hacker can attack a system, how would they do it, and how to protect your system. Crackers and intruders enter databases and web servers for stealing, damaging and spreading of irrelevant programs. This brings in the need of ethical hackers.  A successful ethical hacker should think like malicious hacker and come up with innovative solutions to protect the corporate networks. These ethical hacking is used for the benefits of the I.T. industries.

Anti hacking can be done by using various apps also. The antivirus software, firewalls etc are used for this purpose. There are many benefits of these kinds of apps. They secure your data by providing protection to your system so that hacker can’t crack your system, password protection; backup your files in case of intrusion of virus in your system, lookout for mobile security, prevents your device from connecting to unsecure connection, check for updates, track and wipe your data from hacker’s computer and many more such tasks. Thus in this way, ethical hacking or this kind of apps actually provides you with some kind of protection from the malicious hackers and hence save you from data loss. The result of data loss is too hard to bear for any corporate body.

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