4 Ways to Detect and Prevent Misuse of Data

Two years back, I read William Hertling's Kill Process, a thriller recommended by a dear friend. It's about a woman who works for a popular social networking platform, she is a brilliant hacker and privy to all the user information. She uses the data for saving women from abusive relationships. 

Although the theme of the novel was to save individuals by an empowered woman, the activity can be classified under data misuse. What’s more, even the novel does not recommend it as the protagonist lives in constant fear of being caught red-handed. 

“The Ponemon Institute’s 2018 Cost of a Data Breach Study reveals that organizations that we're able to identify and contain a data breach in 30 days or less saved over $1 million compared to those who needed more time.”

Data Misuse Defined

Data misuse, theft, mining, and manipulation make the headlines every day. Data misuse is the inappropriate usage of data that has been collected by an individual or an organization and used for anything other than what it was stated to be collected for. 

Some of the instances of data misuse are:

• your doctor giving away your health details to a pharma company for formulating a vaccine

• a credit card company selling the profiles of their customer base to a marketing firm 

• leaking phone numbers and email addresses to advertisers or marketers

• auto-spamming contacts

– Anything that is done without the knowledge of the owners, basically.

Ways data can be misused

It is debatable that if a doctor shares health details to formulate a vaccine, the intention is for a greater good, after all. Another example wherein, between 2013 and 2015, US police officers violated data security rules 325 times to get information on the perpetrator’s families, friends, neighbors, business associates, and others. One can only imagine the repercussions if the information extracted from these sources falls in the wrong hands. 

Similarly, scientific research can be manipulated with dangerous implications. It is not just scientific research, but any fact can be wielded by the so-called hacktivists to manipulate the target audience and direct them towards a cause of the hacktivists’ choosing. 

It is imperative to understand the difference between data theft and data misuse. In case of data theft, the data is passed to third parties to be used for other cyberattacks or published over the dark web for ransomware.  The primary motivations for data misuse can be chalked to lack of awareness, personal gain, silent data collection, and using trade secrets for personal gain.

Data misuse also leads to data breaches. For example, if an employee saves the data onto his/her personal laptop to work from home and that data is stolen from the unsecured laptop. What’s more, for most organizations, one such instance can prove to be a very costly affair - beginning with damage control, lawsuit costs, and reputational loss.  

Proactive measures to prevent data misuse

Four basic steps you can take to prevent data misuse:

1. Assessing your risk 
2. Drawing up stringent policies
3. Train employees on data protection
4. Consistently check for any data breach

Assessing your risk

It is essential to understand the risks involved if there is a data breach. Assess your vulnerabilities and take preventive measures to avoid any data breach. Even the smallest slip can attract severe implications in this date and time, where "data is the new oil". A data breach is not limited to numbers or highly sensitive information; it could be any random information that might profit someone.

Drawing up stringent policies

Set your house straight. Policies set the culture of an organization. They do not strengthen the security but give us a preview of what could go wrong while making every individual accountable. Hence, have a comprehensive organizational policy drawn about data misuse. It is important to state the penalties alongside.

Train employees on data protection

A study by CoSoSys shows that 60% of employees don’t know which company data is confidential. Train your staff on the importance of data protection, such as sharing passwords with friends or colleagues, locking the screen when one is away from the desk, not sharing any information with other departments or outsiders. Set the tone right. Your employees should understand that the organization will not tolerate any wrongdoings.

Consistently check for any data breach

Setting limited data access to staff will safeguard your data in the long run. Create a guest ID or limited access IDs for partners and vendors. Constant audit checks for a data breach or any vulnerability. Ensure no data transfer can take place without approval. Be aware of the trends and the threats, and educate your staff as well. Many equate IT in repairing laptops, but a good IT department helps identify such threats and install the right infrastructure to counter them. Invest in quality IT personnel to have a safety net put around your data.

In conclusion

A recent example is the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal wherein data was misused for political gains. The app gathered data of up to 87 million Facebook profiles for political advertising. The scandal triggered a public debate on data privacy, wherein Facebook was accused of allowing Cambridge Analytica to collect personal data of the users and their connected friends. 

What’s more, psychographic profiling was done with the intent of manipulation. The scandal also uncovered that critical personal data such as contacts, call logs and facial recognition data were in use - a classic case of data privacy violation. 

Many like Elon Musk have deleted their company's page on Facebook. This incident shows that even the biggest company will not be spared from reputational harm if proven guilty of data misuse. What more can you do? Install the right security system that will be apt for your business and follow these basic steps to ensure that no data breach happens.