Controlling access to sensitive data is tough. Be too restrictive, and your employees run into too many roadblocks to do their jobs effectively. Too loose, and you are effectively guaranteeing that your organization will find itself on the front page as a victim of one of the many data breaches happening every day. That is why it is important to craft an effective data security strategy: one that relies on automation and oversight to ensure the privacy of your users’ data.

Maintaining an online business presence nowadays means that malicious actors are going to target and likely exploit any application vulnerabilities they can find sooner or later. According to the 2021 Mid Year Data Breach Report, although the number of breaches has declined by 24%, the staggering number of records that were exposed (18.8 billion) means that there is still room for improvement.

When we discuss cybersecurity and the threat of cyber attacks, many may conjure up the image of skillful hackers launching their attacks by way of undiscovered vulnerabilities or using cutting-edge technology. While this may be the case for some attacks, more often than not, vulnerabilities are revealed as a result of careless configuration and inattention to detail. Doors are left open and provide opportunities for attacks.

Recently, I started to read the invaluable book Software Engineering at Google. It’s a great book by Google, describing their engineering practices across many different domains. One of the first chapters discusses the matter of making a “scalable impact,” which I find very interesting, and something that I believe has been overlooked by many organizations.