30% of Australian businesses experience data security breaches — don't risk storing sensitive client information

Do you work for a firm that needs to collect tax file numbers, credit card details and bank details from your clients?

If the answer is yes, then you need to know about data redaction.

Most tax accountants, financial advisors, mortgage brokers and insurance providers collect private data from their clients on a routine basis. But sensitive information should never be stored historically — so you need a reliable data redaction strategy in place.

Why is data redaction important?

The more information you have, the more risk you face. Fact.

Industry research suggests well over 2,000 cyber-attacks occur every day worldwide — roughly one every 39 seconds. The continual rise of phishing scams, email hacks and other cybersecurity breaches leaves businesses open to losing or accidentally publishing client information.

There are various laws and AFSL procedures in place to protect the privacy of tax file numbers and other personal data. Still, many firms aren't in compliance, meaning they risk hefty fines, loss of business, and a significant hit to their reputation.

How much do data breaches cost?

The picture for Australian businesses is sobering:

• Around 3 out of 10 businesses suffer a data security breach
• Around 80% of data breaches involve Personal Identifiable Information (PII)
• The average cost per data breach runs into the millions of dollars
• Hundreds of millions of individuals globally have been affected by data breaches
• In financial services, more than half of data breach costs are typically incurred between 2 and 3 years after the breach event

Protect your data from accidental disclosure

If those statistics make you uncomfortable — or you can't state 100% confidence in your current data protection protocols — you should consider automating your data redaction with Redact by Umlaut.

Human error is a leading cause of data breaches; there's always a significant chance something gets missed.

"The human factor is a dominant theme in many malicious or criminal attacks. Organisations need to reduce the risk of a data breach by addressing human error — for example, by prioritising secure information handling practices."

— Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk

By removing manual procedures and eliminating the potential for embarrassing mistakes, Redact streamlines your data redaction processes. Our intelligent technology finds, sorts, classifies and de-identifies personal information from any source. The software is easy to use, and you can automate redaction by single pages, multi-page documents, groups of connected documents, or whole folders.

Avoid redaction errors

Redaction and masking are not the same thing.

Is your firm still using one of these outdated processes?

• Masking data with black boxes
• Changing the font colour to white to match the document background

Neither tactic permanently removes the masked information — they simply hide it in plain sight. Our technology removes all traces of redacted data, providing a more secure and compliant long-term solution.

How does Redact work?

Redact uses intelligent technology to identify all locations where sensitive information could be stored, and scans them to find documents and data sets that need to be de-identified. Source locations include:

• Email
• Local server
• Network server
• Remote server
• Dropbox
• Google Drive
• OneDrive
• Xplan
• Local hard drive
• Desktop

Once relevant documents have been identified, personal information is erased, files are converted to PDF and saved back to your client record. All metadata is scrubbed, and the original file is deleted so that no trace of the redacted information remains.

An industry leader

Umlaut is an industry leader in high-tech solutions for financial services and banking. With our systems, technology and processes in place, you can finally take redaction off your worry list.

Redact today, or risk paying the true price tomorrow. Contact our team to learn more about Redact.