An organization’s data is one of its most valuable assets and must be protected accordingly. Because there are so many ways an organization’s data could potentially be lost or compromised, organizations must take a multifaceted approach to ensure the well-being of their data. This means focusing on three key areas: data protection, data security and data privacy.
In this article, we compare data protection, data security and data privacy, their goals and main characteristics, as well as key differences and similarities between the three concepts.
Content Summary
Data Protection
Data Security
Data Privacy
Similarities and overlap
Data Protection
- The process of safeguarding important information from corruption, compromise or loss.
- Designed to ensure data can be restored in case of necessity.
- The last line of defense. In case of a successful attack, a backup application can be used to recover the data.
Data Security
- The defence of digital information against internal and external, malicious and accidental threats.
- Designed to thwart a malicious attack against an organization’s data and other IT resources.
- Usually implemented through a defense-in-depth strategy, placing several levels barriers to prevent access. to the data.
Data Privacy
- When an organization or individual must determine what data in a computer system can be shared with third parties.
- Two main aspects: access control and prevention of unauthorized access (such as data encryption).
- Ensures only those who are authorized to access the data can do so, making the data private, but not necessarily secure.
Similarities and overlap
There is a considerable degree of overlap between data protection, data security and data privacy. This is especially true regarding regulatory compliance. Regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard seek to protect data and to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of data by combining data protection, data security and data privacy into a comprehensive data management strategy. These regulations set up data privacy standards while outlining requirements that organizations must put in place to ensure data protection and data security.
