Have you ever wondered where data ends up after it’s been collected by your organization? As a security leader, not having this level of visibility into the data collection process is a risk you cannot afford to take.
Data is one of the most valuable assets your company has, but it can end up being a potential liability. The data collection software you choose plays a significant role in how protected or vulnerable your organization’s data is.
Your data collection provider is more than simply a means of gathering information. Ideally, they are your partner in collecting, managing, and securing sensitive personal data. Knowing how your provider addresses data storage and access management is critical if you want to ensure data security, privacy, and compliance for your organization’s data.
Before you select a potential data collection partner, you must understand where they will store your organization’s data, who will have access to it, and what level of data encryption they provide.
Where Will Your Data Be Stored?
Amidst complex and expanding compliance regulations, proper data storage management is more important than ever. Your data collection partner should store your data only in secure locations and environments, such as the cloud storage solutions provided by AWS.
A data collection software should also maintain the same level of data storage security as required by your company policies and geographic compliance requirements. As part of data storage management, your provider should also have comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plans.
Pro Tip: You should be able to define regions and boundaries for where your data will reside.
Who Will Have Access to Your Data?
Addressing data access management is another critical step when procuring a data collection provider. The most important part of data access is transparency. At all times, the provider must be able to monitor or audit who is accessing what data, when it is accessed, and why.
The data collection provider should have defined access control boundaries for customer data and processes for who has access to production data keys. They should also have established protocols for “break-glass” procedures in case of emergencies.
Pro Tip: Know who will have access to your data and for what purposes.
What Level of Data Encryption Can You Expect?
Your data collection provider will have access to vast amounts of sensitive data that must not be exposed. Offering high data encryption standards is one way a provider can better ensure data security and protect your information against theft and unauthorized access.
Not all data collection providers will offer the same level of encryption or even the same encryption solutions. What is most important is that you choose a provider who ensures modern key algorithms and sizes, does not use deprecated algorithms, and strictly limits access to key stores.
Pro Tip: Know the types of encryption solutions a provider offers and what is included.
Ensure Better Data Security
Procuring a form builder and data collection platform requires careful and critical vetting by you and your team. Download our Data Collection Security Checklist for a curated list of questions to ask a potential vendor and what to look for in their response before you trust them with your organization’s data.
