Data Sovereignty vs Data Residency vs Data Security – What’s the Difference?
You are about to make a data storage decision and wondering where and how to go about it. Data security, Data Residency, and Data Sovereignty are data terms that can be perplexing. Tech firms are handling this kind of data across borders, especially with the rising age of cloud computing.
Data has become a valuable commodity that businesses and individuals use for daily activities, from making decisions to running operations. However, with the excess amount of data generated, stored, and shared, protecting that data has become a challenge for many, and this is where the three data protection methods come in.
On the one hand, data security protects data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, or destruction. Data residency holds the physical geographical location where data is stored and processed, which can affect regulatory compliance, citizens’ privacy concerns, and data protection.
On the other hand, data sovereignty gives a country the right to regulate and control the data collected within its borders. Let’s explore the importance of data security, data residency, and data sovereignty and discuss the trade-offs and challenges in achieving all three simultaneously. We will give a detailed explanation of the complex issues surrounding storing data, both sovereignty and data protection. Keep reading.
What is Data Security?
Data security is one of the most used words among tech geeks. Everyone is after safeguarding data in their databases, putting up firewalls, and adding more security safety nets. Data security practices include data protection from untrusted sources, disclosure, use, and destruction of sensitive information.
It became a significant concern in the early 20th century, and today, data security has been introduced to practically every organization, government, and business in this era. The financial sector, governments, legal sectors, health institutions, and the educational sector are concerned about protecting their data and fighting data breaches daily.
Common Methods of Data Breaches
These breaches can happen at any time of the day via the following:
- Malware (most common)
- Database Hacking
- Social Engineering Attacks
- Phishing links (via emails and common)
What is Data Residency?
Data residency and data localization are more alike than you think. Imagine you are surfing the internet in the Netherlands with your data stored somewhere in Canada. That is how data residency and data localization work. Data localization and residency allow you to have data created in a physical data location, stored, and processed in a different country.
Data residency refers to the physical location where data is stored and processed. It can have implications for regulatory compliance, data protection, and even the performance of applications and services that rely on that data. Countries have different data residency requirements, creating challenges for global businesses. For instance, European Union’s GDPR law requires that all EU residents keep and process data within the EU.
Other countries – like Russia and China- have similar data policies to keep user data within their country’s borders. While working and complying with every country’s data residency compliance policy, an organization can set up data centers to store user data. ServerMania recently opened a data center in Vancouver to offer additional storage options to customers around the world.
Find out more about data center tiers.
What is Data Sovereignty?
The rules and government policies that apply to data held within the country of origin and physical location are known as data sovereignty.
In Canada, for example, the Canadian Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CCPPA) allows customers control over their data while encouraging organizations to be open about how this data is used, including personal ID.
Also, for data based in Australia, Australia’s Privacy Principles (APP) require that personal data stored in Australia adhere to the thirteen data collection and use criteria.
Countries have laws and regulations that require data to be stored and processed within their borders. Data localization and sovereignty are creating more problems for organizations that operate globally. These organizations may be forced to comply with different data localization laws and sovereignty requirements in other countries.
These data laws and regulations can lead to increased costs, complexity in managing international data, and potential legal and regulatory risks if the businesses handling the data fail to comply with local data sovereignty requirements. Businesses managing data independently can get overwhelmed with certain data their servers cannot hold.
In compliance with data sovereignty requirements, businesses may need to move cloud infrastructure or establish local data centers in different countries. As a cloud provider ServerMania has dedicated server hosting locations to handle international data in different countries. We can help you implement data protection measures to ensure data is not subject to unauthorized access or use.
Examples of Data Protection Techniques
Businesses must adopt strong and compliant data management and security procedures to prevent data breaches. Some of these techniques include the following:
- Encryption: Data Encryption converts regulated data into a code-like form that can only be decrypted with a key. This ensures that even if cybercriminals gain access to the data, they cannot read it without the key.
- Access controls: Ensuring that unauthorized access is being controlled is an excellent way to keep your data secure. You should ensure to limit access to unauthorized individuals or applications linked to your data. This access includes passwords saved on unsecured databases or requiring your password to access untrusted apps or sources.
- Data backups: One of the best and most efficient ways to secure data is to back it up on multiple servers and cloud systems. ServerMania has customizable cloud server hosting infrastructure to facilitate data processing with advanced protection. For data to remain safe, you need a backup to create copies of encrypted data that can be restored during a data breach or other data loss event.
- Security awareness training: Security awareness training teaches employees and contractors how to identify and avoid potential security threats. This can include phishing scams, malware, and social engineering attacks.
Data Security vs. Data Residency vs. Data Sovereignty
Data security, data residency, and data sovereignty are three distinct data terms that are alike in concept and important to managing and protecting cloud users’ data today.
Data security practices involve proper data storage, protection from untrusted sources, and unlawful disclosure, use, and destruction of information. It is important to protect data against data breaches, which can have a significant impact on governments and businesses in the financial, legal, health, and education sectors.
Data residency refers to the physical location where data is stored and processed. It can have implications for regulatory compliance, data protection, and even the performance of applications and services that rely on that data.
Data sovereignty is the concept that a country or jurisdiction has the right to regulate and control the data collected within its country’s borders alone.
While data security, data residency policies, and data sovereignty are all important considerations for managing and protecting data, they can also be in tension. For example, data residency requirements may conflict with data sovereignty requirements. Complying with personal data law or local data residency requirements may make it more difficult to implement robust data security measures.
Find out more about data protection and consider Why You Should Host In Canada.
Before you Go!
In navigating these challenges, businesses must take a holistic approach to manage and protect data. This includes understanding local data residency and sovereignty requirements, using data center resources implementing robust data security measures, auditing data, and developing contingency plans for a data breach or other data loss event. By proactively managing and protecting data, businesses can help ensure regulatory compliance and protect their data from potential harm.
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