Everything You Need To Know About Data Privacy Vault

In today's digital age, where data breaches and cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly common, it has become vital for organizations to take proactive measures to protect their sensitive user data. A data privacy vault provides a reliable and effective solution for organizations to safeguard their confidential information and maintain the trust of their customers.

If you have not considered using a data privacy vault for your organization, this is a great time to adopt this tool for its many benefits and safeguards. This article discusses the salient features of an ideal data privacy vault, its many benefits, and how a Data Privacy Vault can help mitigate privacy risks for your organization.

What is a Data Privacy Vault?

A data privacy vault (often referred to as simply “Privacy Vault”) is a secure digital solution to protect sensitive user data. It provides a safe, secure, and controlled environment for organizations to store, manage, and share confidential information such as personally identifiable information (PII), social security numbers (SSN), financial records, health records, and personal business information.

Data privacy vaults use advanced security measures such as two-factor authentication, secure cloud infrastructure, protection against hacking and breaches, data encryption, and regular security audits and updates to ensure that sensitive user data remains safe and secure. Organizations can significantly reduce the risk of data breaches by using a data privacy vault and protecting their customers' privacy.

Also Read:"Everything You Need To Know About Data Privacy Vault"

Why do Organizations Need a Data Privacy Vault?

A data privacy vault protects the organization’s sensitive user data from cyber attacks and breaches. A data breach can result in the loss of confidential information, damage to an organization's reputation, and financial losses. With the amount of data being gathered and stored by organizations proliferating rapidly, the amount of risk posed by data breaches and cyber-attacks has also increased. 

A data privacy vault provides a secure environment for organizations to store, manage, and share their sensitive user data. Using advanced security measures such as two-factor authentication, secure cloud infrastructure, protection against hacking and breaches, data encryption, and regular security audits and updates, a data privacy vault ensures that sensitive user data remains safe and secure.

In addition to protecting sensitive user data from external threats, a data privacy vault helps organizations comply with data protection regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the US. These regulations require organizations to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data. Organizations can demonstrate their commitment to protecting their customers' privacy and comply with data protection regulations using a data privacy vault. This can help build trust with customers and improve an organization's reputation.

Common Types of Sensitive Data Stored in a Data Privacy Vault

A data privacy vault can store a wide range of sensitive user data. Some common types of data that organizations may store in a data privacy vault include

• Personally Identifiable Information (PII) - Personally identifiable information (PII) refers to any information or data point that can be used to identify an individual, such as name, address, date of birth, social security number, and driving license number.
  
• Social Security Numbers (SSNs) - Social security numbers (SSNs) are unique identifiers assigned to individuals by the government for tax and social security purposes.
  
• Financial Records - Financial records refer to information about an individual's financial transactions and accounts, like bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and transaction history.
  
• Health Records - Health records refer to information about an individual's health and medical history, like medical conditions, medications, and treatment history.
  
• Confidential Business Information - Confidential business information refers to any proprietary or sensitive information to an organization, like trade secrets, intellectual property, and financial information.

Components of a Privacy Vault 

A data privacy vault uses advanced security measures to protect sensitive user data from cyber threats and data breaches. Some of the ways in which a data privacy vault protects sensitive user data include:

Two-factor authentication 

Two-factor authentication is a security measure that compels users to provide two different forms of identification to access their data. This can include something the user knows (such as a password) and something the user has (such as a security token). Using two-factor authentication, a data privacy vault can prevent unauthorized access to sensitive user data.

Secure cloud infrastructure 

A data privacy vault can be hosted on a secure cloud infrastructure to provide additional protection for sensitive user data. Reputed cloud services providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure offer advanced security features such as encryption, firewalls, and intrusion detection to protect data stored on their platforms. Using a secure cloud infrastructure, a data privacy vault can ensure that sensitive user data remains safe and secure.

Advanced security measures  

A data privacy vault uses advanced security measures to protect against hacking and breaches. This can include regular security updates, vulnerability scanning, and penetration testing to identify and solve potential vulnerabilities. By proactively safeguarding against hacking and breaches, a data privacy vault can reduce the risk of data loss and protect sensitive user data.

Protection mechanisms such as Tokenization  

Data encryption is converting plain text into ciphertext to prevent unauthorized access. A data privacy vault can use encryption to protect sensitive user data at rest (when stored on a server) and in transit (when transmitted over a network). By using encryption, a data privacy vault can ensure that sensitive user data remains confidential and secure.

Regular security audits and updates 

Regular security audits and updates are essential for maintaining the security of a data privacy vault. Security audits involve reviewing security measures to identify potential vulnerabilities and areas for improvement. Security updates include applying patches and updates to address identified vulnerabilities. By conducting regular security audits and updates, a data privacy vault can ensure that its security measures protect sensitive user data effectively.

Suggested Read: Counter Generative AI Security Risks with Tokenization

Benefits of Using Data Privacy Vault

Using a data privacy vault provides several benefits for organizations. Some of the key benefits include:

• Improved data security: By using advanced security measures such as two-factor authentication, secure cloud infrastructure, protection against hacking and breaches, data encryption, and regular security audits and updates, a data privacy vault can significantly improve the security of sensitive user data.
  ‍
• Reduced risk of data breaches: Breaches can result in the loss of confidential information, damage to an organization's reputation, and financial losses. By using a data privacy vault to store sensitive user data securely, organizations can mitigate the impact of data breaches and protect their customers' privacy.
  ‍
• Granting only authorized users access to sensitive data: A well-designed data privacy vault not only permits authorized users to access sensitive data required to support crucial business workflows, but also generates audit logs that document the same. This allows you to verify that only authorized parties are accessing the sensitive data for approved purposes and prevents unauthorized access.
  ‍
• Compliance with data protection regulations: A data privacy vault can help organizations comply with data protection regulations such as the GDPR and the CCPA. These regulations require organizations to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data.
  ‍
• Enhanced customer trust: By using a data privacy vault to protect sensitive user data, organizations can demonstrate their commitment to protecting their customers’ privacy. This can help build trust with customers and improve an organization’s reputation.

Protecto’s Data Privacy Vault Protects Your Sensitive Data

Protecto offers smart scanning of PII data and tokenization capabilities on a single platform.  Protecto’s “Smart Tokenization” selectively masks personal data, while retaining and presenting the rest of the data in its original form. By doing this, users can still interact with the data but are unable to see ANY sensitive information. This ensures the efficient sharing of data without concerns about security OR compliance risks.

Traditional masking and encryption tools make the data completely unusable for processing through AI/ML models – so it is impossible to get any insights. On the other hand, Protecto's consistent use of identifiers for personal data across all data sources allows your organization to seamlessly merge and analyze data through Analytics and ML models. As a result, organizations can make smart decisions about their enterprise data without sacrificing data privacy and security. 

Conclusion

Protecto’s Data Privacy Vault offers turnkey APIs for developers to collect, tokenize, and re-identify PII on-demand. Using Protecto's Data Privacy Vault, companies can securely store and manage sensitive data without worrying about the security risks of keeping that data in-house.

Getting started with Protecto is easy. Deploy as SaaS with no code setup or install on-premises via containers. Protecto comes with pre-built connectors to popular data stores and enterprise applications. Simply connect your data store or application to Protecto and start mitigating privacy risks in days. 

Try Protecto today for free or contact us for a quick demo.

‍