Get to know the 5 pillars of corporate information security
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Get to know the 5 pillars of corporate information security

Abraão Almeida
Abraão Almeida

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Do you know the five pillars of information security? They are the guide of good practices adopted in order to protect data within companies.

After the implementation of the LGPD, information security gained even more importance for organizations, which had already noticed the great value of the countless data they work with on a daily basis.

But many companies still haven't managed to develop efficient processes that guarantee the protection of this data.

Hence the importance of having some parameters for the establishment of an adequate information security policy.

If your objective at the moment is to improve your information management, the first step is to know the pillars of information security.

They're the ones we're going to talk about in this article. There are five of them and you will need to know each one to ensure your data is protected.

But before addressing each of these five pillars, let's recall the reasons why investing in information security is so important to companies.

Importance of investment in information security

When you think of data as one of the most valuable assets a business can hold, the understanding of the importance of protecting it is immediately detected.

When properly processed and managed, this data is transformed into informational capital and ensuring their security is synonymous with a competitive advantage in the market.

It is based on data that a company can identify promising opportunities, improve its management, strengthen its relationship with customers and increase its profitability.

On the other hand, threats to digital security are increasingly numerous and range from simple human errors to the most ingenious cyber attacks.

Therefore, the protection of information necessarily involves good risk management, which must be reassessed frequently.

This management includes the adoption of information security policies, the definition of secure passwords, the use of encryption software, the installation of firewalls, among others.

The greater the risks, the greater the concern with data protection must be, as the consequences of a data leak, for example, can take years to overcome.

On top of this, data protection is a major concern because of the possible legal consequences of insecurity, as the General Data Protection Law is already in effect.

Once the great importance of investments in this area is understood, let's go to the pillars of information security.

What are the pillars of information security?

Among the five pillars of information security, three are the most popular and are called the CIA triad: confidentiality, integrity and availability.

In the following subtopics, we'll talk about each of them and also about authenticity and irreversibility, concepts that were later added to the first three.

Confidentiality

The first of the pillars of information security consists in accessing data only by authorized persons and preventing anyone else from obtaining such access.

Confidentiality is directly linked to the principle of privacy that must be applied to personal, sensitive, financial data and any other information considered confidential.

At your company, you can secure this parameter using encryption, access control, and setting secure passwords.

Confidentiality is not only one of the pillars of information security, but also one of the requirements of the LGPD. Therefore, it is a priority goal in your data handling.

Integrity

In the context of information security, integrity is synonymous with data preservation, accuracy and reliability.

This means that, throughout its lifecycle, information must not be altered or deleted by unauthorized persons.

Within companies, the integrity of information can be compromised by both human error and cyber attacks.

To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to adopt control mechanisms and implement an adequate information security policy.

Availability

Although there is the question that availability would be a denial of confidentiality, this is just a lack of understanding of the correct meaning of both.

The pillars of information security do not contradict each other. Availability refers to full-time access to data by authorized users.

It is not an availability for anyone wishing to view them. So availability and confidentiality actually complement each other.

To ensure compliance with the availability pillar, the company needs to be guaranteed the stability of its systems.

Thus, it is necessary to establish an efficient maintenance management, eliminating software failures and updating them whenever possible.

Authenticity

All pillars of information security are interconnected. Authenticity, for example, is all about confidentiality. This is because it corresponds to the validation of the authorization that the user needs to have access to data and information.

Passwords and logins are the main mechanisms used to verify authenticity to a user. The goal is to confirm users' identity before they access enterprise systems.

To meet the requirements of this pillar in your company, you must ensure that you set strong passwords and make people who will have access to each type of information aware of the importance of keeping their access data secure.

Non-repudiation/legality

Non-repudiation is inspired by a legal principle that has the same name and its purpose is to prevent denial of authorship of information provided by a company.

In other words, according to the principle of irreversibility, companies need to be able to prove what was done, when it was done and who performed a certain procedure in a system.

Two examples of non-repudiation are electronic document signatures and the use of digital certificates in online transactions.

You can use resources like these in your company to ensure you meet the non-repudiation requirement.

Implement an information security policy

To better organize the data security assurance process in your business, it is essential to establish an information security policy.

It will allow you to follow detailed and standardized guidelines so that all data is safe.

As you already know the pillars of information security, it is time to know how to implement this policy and put its guidelines into practice as soon as possible. Read: How to create an information security policy today.



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