Data is the life blood for businesses in this era of digital living. Companies rely on the substantial amounts of information that help to make decisions, be creative, and stay in the running. With more businesses becoming dependent on data, the need for significant data security measures to protect these business assets has never been more heightened.
To ensure that companies get all the benefits from BI, more importance is being accorded to ensuring that data security forms the core of the benefits realized from the Business Intelligence tools.
The Rise of Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence has revolutionized the way companies will come at data analysis. MarketsandMarkets projects that the global BI and analytics market would be $23.1 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow to $33.3 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period. BI tools have allowed businesses to collect, analyze, and visualize data from various sources, empowering them to make decisions based on data and thus to gain an edge over their competitors.
However, since an increase in BI usage has been reported, the risk of breaches and cyber attacks also soared. Per research from IBM Security and Ponemon Institute, data breach cost stood at approximately 3.86 million dollars globally in 2020, while average cost in the United States was up to $8.64 million.
Significance of Data Security for Business Intelligence
Data security is significant to Business Intelligence due to the following factors:
- Prevent exposing sensitive data: The BI systems may be working with sensitive information, such as customer data, financial information, or even trade secrets. This implies a requirement to protect this sensitive information so that it may be kept confidential and of integrity at all times.
- Data breaches: Business organizations will suffer a lot because of the failure of securing their data since they may lose some cash, wrecked reputation, and liabilities under the law. The good data security mechanisms aim at preventing unapproved access which stops the above kinds of breach.
- Data quality is assured: Quality of data is concerned with security of data. Data if manipulated or compromised, then wrong insights would be provided and poor decisions will be taken. Data security thus ensures that BI insights are reliable and trustworthy.
- Compliance with the law: There are many highly regulated industries, especially in the form of data privacy and security. Data privacy is regulated in the European Union by the General Data Protection Regulation and in the United States by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Failure to comply may result in substantial monetary fines and legal liabilities.
Data Security Best Practices for Business Intelligence
The following best practices in accessing data in Business Intelligence should be done by the company to ensure safety of the data.
- Implement access controls: This is a clear guideline on the user’s access to BI systems and data. Utilizing role-based access controls, limits access to sensitive information just based on an individual’s job function and need-to-know basis.
- Encrypt data: Encrypt the data in rest and in transit to avoid unauthorized access. Utilize strong algorithms of encryption along with updating encryption keys from time to time so that encryption is effective.
- Regular backup of data: Establish good backup policy along with recovery so that loss of data due to hardware failure, human mistakes, as well as cyber attacks can be averted. Store the backup safely and validate the integrity of backups from time to time.
- Perform regular security scans: They ensure that the BI systems’ security posture is reevaluated and vulnerable areas. Security tests, including penetration tests and vulnerability scans, with intent to exploit any identified security weakness.
Employees education: Educate all employees on best practices in data security like recognizing phishing attempts and good use of passwords and reporting suspicious activities. The training materials should be updated continuously in order to refresh the knowledge with the current security threats and best practices.
Conclusion
Such an instance has made data security a crucial component as well, because the businesses rely extensively on business intelligence for decision-making and competitive advantage. Reliable and trustworthy BI insights can be ensured, and unauthorized access, data breaches, and loss of sensitive information can be prevented by instituting best practices in data security. With a rapidly growing global BI and analytics market, investment in data security is going to be crucial to make businesses successful and sustainable in the digital age.
