Digital document security depends on many things. Obviously, to have secure documents, you need to choose the right document management system and high-quality online document storage.
While these two factors happen to be vitally important, they aren’t the only ones that play a role.
Some industries are a lot more vulnerable. The nature of operations and the types of documentation being utilized as a part of everyday activities both create risks for data breaches.
What are some of the most vulnerable commercial fields as far as data security goes? Here are the industries that are at the highest risk of a data breach.
Healthcare
We have talked about the challenges that medical businesses face in terms of securing documents and preventing data breaches.
The issue here is that clinics, hospitals, and other medical facilities have to handle a lot of sensitive data pertaining to their patients. The data is pretty attractive for hackers, which is why medical businesses are constantly being subjected to informational breach attempts.
In 2020 alone, data breaches are anticipated to cost medical facilities over six trillion dollars. The figure was three trillion dollars, hence the increase is massive and alarming.
Statistics in the blog also show that in their lifetime, one in eight Americans will have their medical records breached.
There are ways to ensure the safety of medical records, especially because of the nature of such documentation. Access control and a very reliable internal network will both be required to reduce the risk as much as possible.
Finance
Financial organizations are also considerably more vulnerable than institutions representing other commercial fields.
There are industry standards for ensuring data security in the field of finance. Banks and other financial service providers handle even more sensitive information than clinics and medical facilities. While they do implement pretty rigorous secure document measures, there are still numerous hack attempts that occur on an annual basis.
One of the most serious breaches in this field occurred back in 2019. At the time, Dow Jones databases got hacked, exposing over 2.4 million records. A third party was the one responsible for leaking all of the data and uploading it to a public server. It focused mostly on risky businesses and individuals.
Public Sector
According to some analysts, the public sector actually tops the list of the sectors that happen to be most vulnerable in terms of data safety.
Governmental agencies and other institutions (both national and local) experience a high volume of hacker attacks due to the nature of the documentation that they handle. Usually, such data breach attempts aim for financial gains and there are even some espionage efforts carried out by hackers abroad.
At the same time, analysis suggests that many governmental institutions and public sector entities do not invest in the right cybersecurity solutions. As a result, secure documents are difficult to accomplish. The systems being utilized are often outdated and clumsy. Because of regulations and national protocols pertaining to the work of such institutions, rapid change can be difficult to implement.
Educational Facilities
Public schools, colleges, and universities very often have pretty small IT departments.
This fact contributes to vulnerabilities that hackers will often target in order to access personal records and other types of sensitive documentation.
Some analysts actually comment that educational facilities, especially public schools, are low-hanging fruit for hackers who want to gain unauthorized access to information without having to put a lot of effort into the process.
The K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center reports that in 2019, the number of student data breaches and ransomware attacks has nearly tripled. Many of the hack attacks were so serious that they contributed to financial losses exceeding millions of dollars and widespread identity theft.
Effective electronic data management in the field of education is possible through the adoption of the right technologies. Once again, this is a topic we have covered in the past to share ideas for standard, highly effective protocols.
Secure Documents: Tailored Solutions Are of Vital Importance
The industry examples mentioned above show that no two fields have the same data management needs. In addition, each industry faces specific challenges that will need to be addressed in a precise way.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution as far as secure documents are concerned.
The good news is that contemporary technologies enable a ton of flexibility in terms of document management and introducing the right security protocols.
If you are about to make the switch to such a solution, you will need to analyze your organization’s document management and digitization needs. Based on this analysis, you can compare tech solutions side by side to determine which ones have the features you need.
It’s also important to pick a product known for its flexibility and scalability. Data management needs are not fixed. Your organization’s protocols will change in the future. Hence, it’s essential to pick a platform that can accommodate these changing data management processes in the future.