Data has become the incoherent currency of the contemporary world; everything worthy of being acknowledged socially or culturally has become a part of the virtual world of data. Whether it is the selfie you took or the last thing you searched on the internet or your bank account details, all these activities have become an involuntary part of (PII) Personally Identifiable Information which can be exposed to unauthorized access anytime. World celebrates its Data Privacy Day every year on 28 January to create awareness on privacy laws. It was introduced by the Council of Europe and initiated in India by the Data Security Council of India .
According to the Ponemon Institute’s cost of data breach study found out that the average damage caused by the data breach in the USA was estimated to be $8 million in India the statistics point to $1.83 million. Approximately 25,575 users were impacted during the incident which not only caused financial losses but led to loss of customers trust and severe damages to reputation.
Governance of data privacy has become vital to protect individuals, businesses and governments. Some of the threats posed to data privacy range from accidental exposure, data loss, web hacking, location tracking to potentially massive issues like identity theft, ransomware, data hostaging, and the risk of an unwanted third party that can infiltrate data, documents of an organization.
How can an individual protect and maintain privacy virtually?
The answer to this requires a little time and effort from a user's end. An individual must be very careful when giving private information on the web browser, creating strong and complex passwords to every account, and disabling location tracking. You must always follow a two-step authentication while dealing with financial affairs online.Turn on the Windows firewall,it is a built-in network security device that protects your PC from unwanted attention via the internet. Lastly, always install update and use antivirus software on your computer to protect yourself from malware. The internet is definitely a big and scary place but with the right steps you can use it to your benefit.
