Deep

Data is information that has been observed, processed and either used or not. Data that belongs to a particular company is usually not allowed to be seen by other unfavorable people even for just a little moment. “As data protection legislation gets tighter, schools need to become extra vigilant” (Simister A., 2017) All institutions including both schools, colleges and universities all have one thing in common. The common thing between them is that all of them both increasingly gather and process their personal as well as confidential information concerning their students, staff and also some other member of the general public. In that case, most of the institutions are confronted by the same scenarios which is about some people wanting to steal the information in order to personally gain whatever it is they will e receiving after stealing the information. Therefore, there are measured that institutions could adhere to in order to ensure security of the information and there credibility as well.

The following are the countermeasures that could be taken to ensure institutions do not just let unscrupulous individuals from getting critical and confidential information. The first thing that institutions could do is to appoint a data protection officer in the offices (Steve, S., 2014). This will be an important step since the officer will be the person responsible as well as accountable for the data protection issues that might arise in the organization at any time. It is always a good idea for the data protection officer to be referred to in the data protection policy since it will be required of them to directly deal with the institutions security-related inquiries from the members of the staff. The data protection officer will also be responsible for training the staff concerning matters to do with information security, investigating suspicious activities from the other staff members and also keeping up with the industrial practices and latest security measures.

Also, it is important to train new and existing employees, enacting policies and procedures in the institution in order to curb the issues of data security. Security usually begins with the employees in the institution and therefore is important for them to adequately trained to deal with situations pertaining to data security. This is usually the work of the data protection officer. “Each staff member should have a clear understanding about data protection issues, and the measures that should be taken to mitigate the risks of a potential breach.” It is usually ideal for the members of the staff to attend at least one training course every year which will aid in aligning the compliance protocol of the institution. They should also be reminded that at any moment, they may be a source of a breach and hence they should be up to date with the policies behind data protection policy which they could use as reference if they are unsure of what to do when they get themselves in a particular scenario (Simister A., 2017).

Another methodology involves working from home or the Bring Your Own Device rule. This is increasingly becoming a popular trend amongst institutions. The policy states that the members of the staff are permitted to bring from home their personal devices, including laptops, mobile phones, tablets and flash drives in the workplace (Steve, S., 2014). Even though there are a couple of security threats that are involved with this technique since the institution will not have control over how the devices are managed. In order to help mitigate these risks, the institution is supposed to install device management software on any device that is used to access the institution’s data.

Moreover, there is the subject access requests (SAR’s) (Simister A., 2017). Under the Data Protection Act, the subjects of data typically have the right to request for any private information which is held by any organization. It is essential to note that this method may comprise private emails which may have information that is delicate and personal. Institutions also need cyber insurance; this is important to an institution so that it may cover the potential data breaches. This is because the fines\s associated with the breaches are commonly very high. Insurance companies cover cyber attacks and data theft. The last point would be for the institution to regularly conduct audits in the name f the institution. This is important because it’s the fastest way to find out where the sensitive data for the organization is located, who has access to what type of data and when the data was last accessed. With these measures, it will be hard for institutional data to be stolen.

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