Overcome Data Security Challenges with Google Workspace

How can you overcome data security challenges, and protect your organisation from the multitude of potential cyber threats in the world using Google Workspace?
Last updated: March 5, 2021

Google is seeking to change the way we work. Workspace is a distillation of the knowledge the world’s first trillion-dollar company has learned as it seeks to find better ways to serve people and businesses. A leading suite of enterprise-level tools is available to help companies become more agile and stay safer.

When most people evaluate business tools, they think in terms of the productivity it allows or the performance advantages they gain. Our focus is on what’s to be gained as we adopt new technology.

The people that run those systems, though, are more concerned about what they may lose. They keep security at the top of their list because they know how important it is to keep our data safe.

Why is data security important?

In the digital age, our data has become a commodity. All of those bits of information stored on our drives have a real-world value. For companies, data fuels innovation and provides invaluable insights. For people, data lays the foundation of our identities and plays a pivotal role in how we interact with the world.

The fight to protect this data is an unseen world that most of us aren’t aware of. Wary professionals are in a savage arms race pitted against hackers and cyber terrorists. A few key pieces of information are all they need to sneak their way into your company and wreak havoc. A few details about your life are all they need to steal your identity and ruin your life for years to come.

Cloud Security Fundamentals

Google Workspace is built with cloud technologies to be both robust and secure. The data centers that run these technologies are built from the ground up to keep information secure. They use custom-designed hardware to offer efficient servers that perform under stressful situations. Reliability and uptime is the religion of their infrastructure. Encryption surrounds every email sent on their servers.

As privacy and security standards are updated, Workplace adapts right along with it. Apps, controls, and processes are easy to bring up to compliance with the demands of authoritative regulatory bodies.

Data Security Challenges and Their Causes

Phishing attacks, where people are duped into giving up personal information, have always been an issue and email is 91% of these attacks take place. These attacks are what fuel data breaches and identity theft.

The malware that exploits our systems causes untold dollar figures in damage every year when installed by people clicking on fraudulent links and downloading suspicious attachments – mostly unintentionally.

Workspace also works to prevent other challenges that a company faces. Google Vault stores everything when auditing or investigation is required, and allows you to retrieve lost emails that were deleted either on purpose or by accident. The activities of users (email, chat and meetings) can be audited to make sure that professional standards are adhered to.

Advanced phishing and malware protection protects employees from unseen threats, while the investigation tool allows administrators to set up effective processes that disallow unwanted actions.

Advance Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for Gmail and Drive Files

2-step verification is widely adopted to avoid unwanted logins. Any suspicious activity is monitored using machine learning to keep the bad guys out of your account. They give power to administrators to prevent employees from making silly mistakes.

Administrators can set up sound company policies that protect the data that is exchanged on company systems. One streamlined dashboard gives them the power they need to follow strict company data policies and prevent openings for a breach to occur.

Google’s predefined content detectors allow easy setup of these rules. Premade templates are available that adhere to business best practices, or custom rules can be set up for more demanding companies.

For instance, outgoing emails can be scanned for sensitive information such as credit cards or trademarked terms. If anything like this is found, the email doesn’t send, instead demanding attention from the sender and approval from administrators.

Workspace apps like Docs, Sheets, or Slides can be scanned before they are sent out. The same goes for a variety of file types, including:

  • Documents
  • Images
  • Compressed files
  • Custom extensions

Everything that happens is tracked and logged, providing a digital trail of breadcrumbs to get to the source of problems and fix them.

Final thoughts

The innovative technologies of Google Workspace allows for companies to meet the most stringent digital security demands. They offer the best of productivity and ease of access while leveraging advanced technologies and verification tools to stop unwanted access. Your data is kept secure and reliable systems are in place to prevent loss of data.

Administrators have access to all aspects of their security from a single dashboard and the tools to keep employees safe from targeted malware or phishing attacks. SixFive is here to help administrators get the most out of these tools and protect business productivity and intellectual property.

Duncan Isaksen-Loxton

Educated as a web developer, with over 20 years of internet based work and experience, Duncan is a Google Workspace Certified Collaboration Engineer and a WordPress expert.

1 Comment

FIONA LATHAM-CANNON

Hey Duncan,
Would you mind if I linked in this article with a training session I’m delivering in March?
With credits of course.
Cheers,
Fiona ????

Comments are closed.

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