Data privacy and security: Protecting sensitive information in the digital age

Company A thought it had all the right cybersecurity measures in place. In fact, it successfully defended itself against malicious actors on several occasions. But then a phishing attack tricked an employee into exposing their login credentials – perhaps because the employee wasn’t trained properly to recognise phishing attempts. As a consequence, hackers were able to obtain access to company systems, and more than 100 customer accounts were compromised.

This situation really happened. The company involved? Mailchimp, one of the world’s biggest marketing platforms. Among the 133 customer accounts impacted by the data breach were Statista, Solana Foundation and other businesses. 

The moral of this story is: if it can happen to Mailchimp, it can happen to your company. As such, it’s never been more important to protect your data and stay abreast of data privacy trends. In this article, we’ll look at the state of data privacy and security in 2025, and explore best practices for protecting your data.

The legal landscape is evolving 

In Europe, we already have GDPR as the main legal framework for data protection. But there’s also the recent EU AI Act, which touches on the relationship between AI and data protection and will be fully enforced from February 2025.

Elsewhere, we may see important regulatory changes in 2025. The following isn’t an exhaustive list, but it shows how the legal landscape is constantly evolving:

• In the US the incoming Trump administration may implement broad changes. But at a state level, more states are adopting their own privacy regulations – thus complicating the data privacy picture for companies operating in the US. 
• Countries around the world are updating their data privacy laws to take account of factors like AI and children’s personal data, and often introducing harsher penalties. These include Australia’s Privacy Act, Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information, and Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act. 
• Some laws that have been in place for a while are coming into full enforcement in 2025, including India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act and Vietnam’s Personal Data Protection Decree. 

On top of all this, we could see some interesting legal decisions regarding the use of generative AI. For example, where customer or employee data has been fed into systems like ChatGPT for training or prompt purposes, legal action could be taken against the providers of generative AI models or businesses feeding data into them. Watch this space – but in the meantime, be very careful about the data you feed into generative AI systems!

Data security trends for 2025

Some of the biggest threats are already well known to businesses – think phishing attempts, malware attacks, ransomware attacks, insider threats, and DDoS attacks. These will no doubt continue in 2025 and beyond. But what are the newer threats companies should be aware of? 

By far, the biggest threat comes from AI. Criminals are using AI to target organisations in fiendish new ways, like:

• As with everyone else, hackers are jumping on the generative AI bandwagon, using it to create more sophisticated, customised attacks (such as highly convincing phishing emails) with greater ease. 
• AI is fuelling more realistic audio and video deepfakes. You’ve probably already heard stories of employees transferring huge sums of money to criminals after being told to by a ‘senior executive’ – or rather, a deepfake posing as a senior exec. It’s on the rise.
• Criminals can also target AI systems themselves – for example, infiltrating your AI system and corrupting it with false data that creates havoc. 

Best practices for data protection

Unfortunately, there’s no ‘easy’ way to protect your data. A strong cybersecurity strategy involves multiple elements – many of which have to constantly evolve in line with the latest threats and regulations. That said, cybersecurity essentials generally include:

• A comprehensive set of cybersecurity protocols designed to identify and stop breaches in their tracks. This will usually include anti-malware, anti-ransomware and anti-phishing tools. 
• Multi-factor authentication tools that require users within the business to verify their identity with two or more factors. This would have prevented the Mailchimp breach we mentioned earlier.
• Tools to monitor for software vulnerabilities, so that patches can be deployed quickly.
• Good password hygiene. Consider using a business password manager tool for this.
• Data backup and recovery tools, in case of an attack.
• Cybersecurity insurance, again, in case of an attack.
• A strong cybersecurity training programme, to educate employees on the biggest threats, and how to keep the company safe.

Have you got the talent you need to protect your data?

No doubt about it, in 2025 the threat landscape will remain as complex and serious as ever. Which means you need the right talent to protect your business. Roc Search can connect you with expert cybersecurity talent – on a permanent, temporary or project basis. And if you’re a tech professional looking for your next career move, check out our latest technology and IT jobs.