In this post, I will talk about the tips to prevent personal data breaches on your website.
Websites have become one of the easier places for attackers to steal personal data. More and more data is being processed in the browser. Beyond email addresses and phone numbers many site visitors will submit:
- KYC information (drivers license scans, passport scans)
- Health information (liability disclosure forms, onboarding forms)
- Account & purchase details (to chatbots for support)
As a result, both security and privacy compliance teams must take web security more seriously than ever. Incidents like the British Airways data breach that resulted in a €20 million fine showed how weaknesses in client-side security leads to massive penalties.
GDPR is the most known framework for strict personal data protection requirements on websites. This article focuses on defense tips against data breaches, but you can see a full compliance strategy on the article how to make your website compliant with GDPR.
Table of Contents
Penalties for Website Data Breaches
Companies are still fully liable for data exposure due to insecure forms, misconfigured scripts, or compromised third-party tools. Enforcement bodies care about whether reasonable protections were in place at the moment of collection.
As consumers have grown more privacy conscious, frameworks like the GDPR and CCPA put a direct mandate on companies to put privacy protection measures in place.
GDPR
Organizations are required to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data. This includes data collected through websites, tracking technologies, and client-side scripts.
Penalties can reach up to 4% of global annual revenue.
CCPA and CPRA
In the United States, the California Consumer Privacy Act and the California Privacy Rights Act require businesses to implement reasonable security procedures to protect personal information.
Companies can be targetted by state regulatory bodies as well as by civil lawsuits from individuals. CCPA fines have reached up to $1.55 Million, in the landmark case against Healthline for failing to honor “opt out” requests and continuing to share data with third party trackers despite users requesting to be exempt from such personal data sharing.
Why Websites Are a High-Risk Surface for Personal Data Breaches
Most organizations still think of the website as a marketing asset alone. In reality they act like a full web application full of scripts, APIs, and integrations that move data between multiple parties. Each of those connections adds a security and privacy violation risk to your organization.Â
When a visitor enters information into a form, that data might pass through several layers before it’s stored. Analytics tools watch page interactions. Tag managers load new scripts in real time. Chatbots or third-party forms capture messages and then send them to cloud services for processing. Every one of these touchpoints can become a leak entry point if not carefully monitored.
The security gap: All of this happens client-side (code execution in the user browser). Not within your company servers. So traditional web security tools are not protecting this sruface. You can have perfect backend security and still expose personal data through something as small as a compromised JavaScript dependency or an outdated marketing plugin.
Tips to Prevent Website Data Breaches
Preventing website data breaches revolves around building visibility and control over how personal data is collected, stored, and shared at the browser level. Below are a few steps to start with that will reduce exposure
1. Continuously monitor your website
Websites change constantly. First party code (written by your team) and third party code (from tools added to your website) are meant ot change frequently. Periodic audits might leave windows of time where privacy disclosures are inaccurate or data collection is taking place without your team knowing it. Continuous monitoring ensuresÂ
- How to do it: Track all points of data collection on your website (forms, chatbots, collection from third party tools) and watch for code changes that expand data collection.
2. Manage third-party data processors with a zero-trust model
Every embedded tool on your website is a potential data processor. That includes analytics vendors and ad platforms. Most teams do not know which vendors have access to data, what data they touch, or where that data is sent.
- How to do it: Keep an updated list of all third-party scripts and the data they process. Restrict access to only what’s necessary. If a vendor doesn’t provide transparency around data use, treat them as untrusted until proven otherwise.
3. Encrypt personal data at every stage
Encryption isn’t just for databases. Sensitive data entered through forms should be encrypted in transit. This limits how much information an attacker can see, even if interception occurs.
- How to do it: Use an ebcrpytion tool with GDPR and CCPA specific features.
4. Apply strong access control
Not everyone in your organization needs access to form submissions or visitor data. The fewer people who can touch that data, the smaller your risk surface. Take into account integrations with your website such as CRMs that may show personal data to external contractors.
- How to do it: Enforce least-privilege access in your CMS and web tools. Disable old accounts quickly. Use MFA wherever possible and log access to data collection endpoints.
5. Test your website like an attacker
Many breaches happen because no one looked at the website through an attacker’s eyes. Regular penetration tests and vulnerability scans help uncover client-side weaknesses before someone else does.
- How to do it: Include browser-level testing in your routine security assessments. If your team doesn’t have the resources to tet internally, use an external security provider familiar with client-side attacks like formjacking or data-skimming.
Use Tools That Automate GDPR Website Risk Monitoring
Manual website reviews don’t scale. You can audit forms, cookies, and scripts today and by next week the site has already changed. Privacy compliance can be full of repetitive manual work. Fortunately there are tools that automate most of the heavy lifting.Â
In practice, leaning on vendor tools is the only realistic way to maintain compliance once your organization processes significant web traffic.
This selection guide comparing tools for GDPR compliance looks at the core categories of GDPR tools and what they do to help you understand which ones are right for your team. Options for website monitoring solutions like cside Privacy Watch are explored and compared against general compliance tools like Vanta or OneTrust.Â
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About the Author:
Meet Angela Daniel, an esteemed cybersecurity expert and the Associate Editor at SecureBlitz. With a profound understanding of the digital security landscape, Angela is dedicated to sharing her wealth of knowledge with readers. Her insightful articles delve into the intricacies of cybersecurity, offering a beacon of understanding in the ever-evolving realm of online safety.
Angela's expertise is grounded in a passion for staying at the forefront of emerging threats and protective measures. Her commitment to empowering individuals and organizations with the tools and insights to safeguard their digital presence is unwavering.
