Avoid These Common Security Mistakes: Lessons for Data Privacy Week

At this late date, just about everyone understands that safeguarding sensitive data is critical for every organization.

As the tech industry observes Data Privacy Week, it's important to understand that there is a thin line between data security and data privacy. Data security focuses on protecting data from unauthorized access, breaches, or theft, while data privacy ensures that personal information is collected, processed, and shared responsibly, with user consent and in compliance with relevant regulations.

Both are interconnected—without strong security, privacy cannot be guaranteed, and without clear privacy policies, even secure systems can misuse data. Organizations need to address both holistically to build trust and protect sensitive information effectively.

Still, all too often, businesses fall victim to common data security and privacy mistakes, exposing their systems to breaches, compliance failures, compromised privacy, and reputational damage.

There is good news, however. Most of these pitfalls can be easily avoided and Fortanix’s advanced solutions are here to help. Let’s explore a handful of common mistakes and how Fortanix empowers businesses to build a robust data security strategy.

Mistake #1: Relying on Perimeter Security Alone

One of the biggest mistakes an organization can make is relying entirely on perimeter-based security and not encrypting sensitive data at all. Many businesses mistakenly believe that strong firewalls and access controls are sufficient to protect their data.

While these measures are essential, they’re not foolproof cybercriminals can still bypass these defenses through phishing, insider threats, or exploiting software vulnerabilities.

Further, perimeter security fails in cloud and hybrid environments because no fixed boundaries exist. Data is stored across public clouds, private clouds and on-premises systems, each with unique vulnerabilities. Users access this data from remote locations, mobile devices, and third-party networks, bypassing traditional firewalls.

This gives attackers an opportunity to exploit gaps like misconfigured cloud settings, lateral movement between environments and stolen credentials, making perimeter defenses ineffective against modern threats like ransomware, insider attacks, and supply chain breaches. Breaches can occur without securing the data itself, even if the perimeter appears secure.

Fortanix addresses this issue by providing data encryption and tokenization solutions that protect data wherever it resides or moves. This ensures that the data remains secure and unreadable even if unauthorized access occurs. It’s a data-centric approach that enhances protection against threats even as they evolve and become more sophisticated.

Mistake #2: Not Preparing for a Post-Quantum World

Quantum computing is no longer a distant possibility [source]. As this technology advances, traditional encryption methods like RSA and ECC will become increasingly vulnerable to quantum attacks.

Organizations must adopt cryptographic agility to ensure systems can switch to quantum-resistant algorithms without overhauling infrastructure, reducing downtime and costs.

Fortanix takes that a step further by simplifying post-quantum readiness with solutions to discover, assess, and enhance your cryptographic security posture. With Fortanix Key Insight, organizations can locate and track encryption keys across multicloud environments, prioritize post-quantum cryptography adoption, and achieve cryptographic agility.

This empowers businesses to efficiently transition to new cryptographic standards while maintaining control and resilience across diverse environments.

Mistake #3: Poor Key Management Practices

Practices in cloud and hybrid environments such as storing keys alongside encrypted data, hardcoding them into applications, or relying on manual management, are prone to breaches. Failure to rotate keys, enforce strict access controls, or maintain centralized visibility creates vulnerabilities that attackers exploit. Neglecting robust backups risks permanent data loss, while inadequate monitoring allows unauthorized key usage to go unnoticed. Very often, organizations rely on cloud vendor-managed keys without oversight, which compromises compliance and control.

Fortanix offers centralized and automated key management solutions, simplifying the process of discovering, assessing, and remediating potential risks. With support for multicloud and on-premises environments, Fortanix ensures secure and streamlined key management, no matter where your data lives.

Mistake #4: Not Securing Data in Use

Many organizations focus on protecting data while it’s at rest or in transit, but it’s easy to overlook the risks associated with data while in use. Data in use refers to data being actively processed, such as when it’s in memory (a financial transaction or personal data update), during computation (AI model analysis or user behavior analysis), or accessed by applications (real-time editing or querying a database). This data is vulnerable during these phases, as it can be exposed to unauthorized access or breaches if not encrypted.

Fortanix uses confidential computing technology to enable organizations to protect data and applications in isolated runtime environments, encrypting data as it’s actively being used across your ecosystem.

Mistake #5: Lack of Visibility and Control

The complexity of managing multiple platforms—public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises infrastructure—often leads to blind spots. Without clear insight into where data is or isn’t encrypted, how well data is encrypted, and how it’s used, organizations struggle to maintain security and compliance—you can’t protect what you can’t see.

Without comprehensive visibility into your cryptographic estate, the risk of unauthorized access and regulatory violations multiplies.

Fortanix provides Key Insight for deep visibility into your cryptographic footprint, and Data Security Manager for centralized key management to track and manage data encryption effectively.

With Fortanix, you gain complete visibility and control for your encryption and keys across hybrid multicloud, to streamline operations, accelerate compliance, and mitigate security risks.

Fortanix: Securing the World's Data

By addressing these five common mistakes, Fortanix offers a holistic approach to data security that goes beyond traditional methods. Data Security Manager provides a unified platform for encrypting data and managing encryption keys, secrets, and policies across various cloud environments.

It’s a centralized approach that ensures consistent security measures and simplifies compliance efforts for businesses operating in complex, multi-cloud infrastructures.

Our commitment to data privacy is grounded in advanced cryptographic technology, which, when combined with a Zero Trust approach to data security, helps organizations fulfill critical security criteria and build stronger customer trust.

As data privacy regulations evolve and cyber threats become more sophisticated, businesses must stay ahead of potential vulnerabilities. Fortanix's comprehensive suite of data security solutions empower organizations to protect their most valuable asset – their data – throughout its entire lifecycle.

Don't let common data privacy mistakes put your business at risk. Secure your data with Fortanix's advanced solutions and gain peace of mind knowing that your sensitive information is protected by industry-leading technology.