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Business intelligence is imperative for a firm to achieve strategic success and better the organization’s performance through knowledge and analysis. However, the encouragement of the use of BI systems as a means of improving organizational performance brings forth the question of the protection of such assets.
Thus, preserving your BI assets is a crucial factor in guaranteeing the data’s quality and accessibility and its protection against unauthorized access. Here you will find tips to protect the BI capabilities of your company.
In BI security, the protection of information, applications, and courses of action used in gathering, storing, and processing business data is ensured. The components of BI security can be defined as follows – guarding against unauthorized access to data, verifying data integrity, and making data available to authorized people.
The overall security plan is the key to the safety of your BI assets. It is the systematic process of risk evaluation, identification of threats and application of proper security controls. Here’s how to develop an effective security plan:
Consider external and internal hazards that might harm Business Intelligence systems being cyber threats, hacking, and insider danger.
Assess the effect of the listed threats in your business processes.
Design and implement appropriate security measures and guidelines regarding to data access, processing and storage.
It is also important to make sure that all employees are knowledgeable of these policies and follow them strictly.
BI data must not be accessible to everyone within the organization; hence it is important that organizational BI data has high security levels that restrict only authorized individuals to access the data.
Implement the RBAC access control method for the simplicity of permission management based on employees’ positions.
Protecting the information is a very important aspect of BI where data encryption is very important. Implementing encryption annihilates data in the event that it falls into the wrong hands so that it cannot be put to any use.
Ensure that data and messages are encoded when stored locally and over the network, utilizing the greatest levels of data security.
Encrypt all data from the source right from the sender to the receiver as a means of protecting data.
Apply data obfuscation methods to hide or modify sensitive information for environments other than the production one in order to minimize the probability of data leakage.
It is recommended to conduct security audits from time to time to be aware of all possible BI systems’ weaknesses.
Limit access to the data and usage should also be checked in order to know if there are any irregular activities.
The problem mentioned above requires the implementation of secure network practices to minimize threats to BI assets. They make sure that data communicated over the networks are safe.
1. Firewall and Security: The firewalls and intrusion detection system affect access control in a manner that is described next.
To run a successful firewall use it to shield your network from unapproved access.
The anti-virus software must be supported by an intrusion detection and prevention system in order to counter possible threats.
Employ VPNs while accessing BI electronically to get an encrypted way of protecting the data.
It is very important to carry out the process of traffic analysis with the purpose of detection of network activity.
Employ first-rate tools to scare threats and manage these risks adequately.
Cybercriminals have identified BI applications as being on the receiving end. Safeguarding these applications is critical to protecting your BI assets.
Adopt the following norms while coding the BI applications to reduce the number of exposures;
Encode and decode the software regularly for glitches and security compromise.
Ensure that BI applications as well as the systems on which they are based are regularly updated with appropriate security specifications.
On a similar note, it is also important to have an auto patch management in order to have timely patches for faults.
Leverage web application firewalls (WAFs) to shield BI applications from common web app threats including; SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).
Speaking of risks, it is critical to underline that human error is one of the most influential factors threatening BI security. Security awareness training is vital as it helps the employees to identify security threats and how to handle them.
This suggestion involves holding security training sessions periodically which help the employees to understand the security of BI.
Perform a preventive campaign concerning security awareness and lead training focusing on phishing awareness, how to handle sensitive data, and how to report the detected security issues.
Demolish communication security awareness programs to remind the employees of security requirements and to ensure security is a priority in the company.
Employ different forms of communication such as posters and emails, and articles to be placed on the intranet as a way of reminding people about BI security measures.
Create an incident response plan to effect the right response to security breaches.
It is recommended to stage security-related emergencies with the employees from time to time so they can know the proper actions to take in such circumstances.
BI security can be improved by integrating advanced security technologies that would add other layers of security over the BI assets.
It will be possible to use AI and ML algorithms to identify threats proactively and answer the emerging threats in the real-time basis.
Use predictive analysis to come up with areas that can be exploited and avoid them being exploited by other parties.
Using this technology, there is security in the storage and transfer of data using blockchain.
Blockchain offers the opportunity to generate the certainty of data transactions, which improves data quality.
Employ security measures that are hosted in the cloud in order to safeguard BI assets in cloud systems.
It is imperative that the Cloud service providers abide to set security standards and or regulations.
Guarding the business’s intelligence assets is necessary because these are valuable assets of the company that would upset a rival if unveiled to the public. Severe consequences of unauthorized access and data breaches are financial loss, damage to a company’s reputation, and possible penalties.
Some of the threats that affect BI security include cyber security threats such as phishing and ransomware, data leakage, internal threats in terms of employees, and weaknesses and openings in BI applications and affiliated networks.
The following is a question that moves us to the next level of understanding regarding how encryption can improve BI security:
Encryption improves the security of BI since information is transmitted in an encoded format and even if it is intercepted by the wrong parties it cannot be utilized. It safeguards information in storage and transmission, thereby lowering the rates of data leaks.
BI security is enhanced by the intervention of the employees. They have to follow security measures, distinguish security threats and report them, and work with the information of a security level. It is important to reduce human errors which can be done by means of organizing periodical training and awareness sessions.
BI security can be enhanced by the fusion of AI and blockchain through early threat detection, predictive BI analysis, and data security. AI is able to provide solutions to threats within the shortest possible time and blockchain provides proof of transaction due to its inability to be altered.
