Data: The spring of confidence

“In God we trust. All others must bring data.” W. Edwards Deming, A quality Guru.

The iconic statement made by a well-known quality expert of the 20th century aptly describes the importance and role of data in business. He equated the role of data in business with that of God in business. It is a great mistake to theorize before one has got enough data. One can have data without information but no information without data. It is through data that one acquires true understanding.

The goal of all business endeavors is to turn data into information and information into insight. Having said all this, there is no exaggeration to call data the spring of confidence for business, And this being so, any security breaches in the main body of data like a hole in the base of a water tank. Data therefore must be preserved at all costs if one wishes to make his business prosper.

What is a breach of data?

A data breach is the intentional or unintentional release of secure or private/confidential information to an untrusted environment. Other terms for this are data leak, data spill or unintentional information disclosure, information leak.

A data breach is a security violation in which sensitive, protected, or confidential data is copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen, or used by an individual unauthorized to do so.

Data breaches may involve financial information such as credit card, bank details, personal health information, personally profitable information, trade secrets of corporations, intellectual property.

Tips to protect oneself from a security breach

1. If one’s account is on any site that was breached one should change one’s password immediately.
2. One should never reuse passwords. Also, one should have a unique & complex password. The longer a password is better it is(one must use a password more than 20 characters long). Also, for a password to be strong multiple characters should be used (one must use uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters). For every login, a unique password has to be created (it should never be reused)

All said and done, the question arises that how can one follow those rules if one has got more than 100 passwords. The answer to this is the use of password manager.

Thus, with the disciplined application of password rules, one can successfully win over the menace of a security breach to create sustainable businesses and a sound & prosperous economy.