Top Data Protection Strategies for Businesses in 2025

Taking care of your business’s data and ensuring it’s protected from external breaches and potential loss is essential. Good protection not only shields you from losing sensitive data, but also protects you financially, legally, and operationally. Data loss can cripple businesses if mitigative and responsive strategies are not in place.

In this blog, we discuss the key data protection strategies your business should employ and how they’ll ultimately benefit your overall online security efforts.

Zero Trust Security Model

Zero trust security models have proven notably effective for data protection and mitigating the risk of security breaches.

As the name suggests, it works on the logic of “never trust, always verify”, meaning no user or device is ever marked as trusted or known on a network. That way, whenever an employee logs in for work – in-office or remotely – they need to verify their devices and credentials every single time, typically through multi-factor authentication (which we touch on further down the page).

With the right setup, employees will still be able to easily log in with little friction, even with the additional steps. However, the benefits to your business’s overall security can be significant through this simple measure.

Advanced Encryption Techniques

In its most basic sense, encryption enables you to take sensitive data and protect it by making it near-impossible to decipher for anyone who doesn’t have the proper credentials or access. 

A simple example is end-to-end encryption of private messages. While the messages read normally to you and the person you’re messaging, the content of those messages is heavily encrypted so that no one else without authorised access could ever read them.

Encryption often uses maths-based algorithms that take your readable data and turn it into near-impenetrable gibberish that would take the most sophisticated programs and hackers the equivalent of years, decades, or even centuries to crack.

Various types of encryption can be utilised, and our IT professionals can help you set up the most effective encryption for your business’s IT security needs.

AI-Powered Threat Detection

Having good threat detection on hand is essential to data protection, and many antivirus and antimalware programs now have AI integrated into them. The key benefits are in the fact that AI and machine learning can be used to improve the capabilities of threat detection as a whole.

For example, machine learning can inform an antivirus program of the features that are common in bad or potentially malicious files and executable programs. If the antivirus detects files or programs with these noted features, it can preemptively remove or prevent those programs/apps from running without explicit permission from an admin.

In many ways, threat detection software that utilises AI is better equipped to predict threats, identify common problem features, and better analyse and prevent risks in real-time without the need for manual intervention. These features can be a big plus for maintaining endpoint security.

Comprehensive Data Backup Solutions

Data protection isn’t just about actively preventing the loss of data – it’s also about ensuring you have backups in the event a loss does occur. At the end of the day, there’s no 100% foolproof way of preventing a potential data breach or loss due to other factors.

It’s certainly worth having all data backed up to the cloud (and, if possible, across multiple cloud storage providers), but you need local backups, too. You can find mechanical hard drives and solid-state drives (SSDs) that offer many terabytes of storage, from a few terabytes up to hundreds of terabytes on the SSD front. 

However you’re backing up your data, you’ll want it to happen often. Many cloud-based services, such as Office 365, back up data automatically as you make changes to files and apps. We also suggest ensuring things are manually backed up every week to local hardware.

Employee Training and Awareness

Data protection also comes down to the knowledge and awareness of your employees. Not just in terms of being aware of online threats that could pose risks to your business’s data, but also how cybercriminals use techniques like social engineering to manipulate employees into sharing sensitive information for access.

Awareness and preparedness is key. When your employees know what to look out for both online and offline, the steps they need to take to maintain workplace security, and what to do in the event of a breach or data loss, you can continue to better mitigate data protection risks.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Multi-factor authentication is a security measure that’s increased in popularity and general use significantly over the past 10+ years. Chances are you’ve used some form of it to access and secure your own online accounts. For example, verifying you want to finalise a major online purchase by inputting a verification code that was sent to your phone.

For businesses, it’s a similar premise. You may secure your company accounts by requiring authorised users to authenticate access through a trusted phone number or authenticator app every time they log in.

Wherever it is practical to do so, we strongly recommend implementing MFA into as many of your business’s online accounts and devices as possible. There are various forms of MFA, including:

• Phone calls, text messages or emails containing an authentication token
• Temporary codes that change often (e.g. every 30 seconds) through authenticator apps such as Microsoft and Google Authenticators
• Biometrics (e.g. fingerprint, eye scan, etc.)
• Physical printouts of one-time codes
• Security questions – you may have to answer one or multiple questions

Regular Security Audits and Penetration Testing

Over time, online threats evolve and become more effective at circumventing security measures that might’ve worked in the past. With significant advances in the sophistication of AI and machine learning, cybercriminals gain more and more ways to exploit security.

That’s why regular cyber security audits are an absolute must. We recommend performing these at least once a year at minimum, but a security audit every six months is worth considering if you run a larger business with extensive data and customer information.

Security audits are the most effective way of identifying where your biggest security issues exist and the necessary steps to plug those holes.

As part of these audits, we can conduct penetration tests. These tests simulate real-world cyber security attacks in a controlled environment. They allow us to assess how well-secured your network is from common cyber-attack methods used by cybercriminals. 

Doing these regularly will ensure you maintain your security to the standards necessary for proper data protection.

If you’re looking to improve your security and better protect your business’s data, Setup4 can help. Our team of knowledgeable IT experts will implement the best security measures for your business and guide you on how to mitigate data loss risks now and in the future.
Get started today by getting in touch.

Beyond Business Chat, there are also the many ways in which Copilot works with the wealth of Microsoft Office 365 apps. 

In Word, for example, you could ask Copilot to change the tone of your writing or take a body of data and generate it in a table. You could also use it to confirm you’re using the right terminology based on industry or location (e.g. Aussie English versus American), to write up an intro or conclusion based on the body of your copy, and more!

Similarly, in PowerPoint, you can provide Copilot with the information and data you need to be included and request it to generate a PowerPoint. From there, you could edit accordingly. 

In Excel, you can provide Copilot with data and ask it to calculate projected profits or losses. If you use Microsoft Teams for collaboration, Copilot can summarise previous conversations into actionable steps you need to take. It can also work in video calls, taking notes of what’s being discussed and providing you with the key takeaways.

These are just some of the many ways in which Microsoft 365 Copilot improves individual and collective productivity. The end result of this heightened efficiency is a business that can get more done without employees having to overload themselves.

This means your employees can continue working efficiently and benefit from more optimised goals and consistent support from Copilot on top of the current support and collaboration with fellow employees.

Transforming and Growing Your Business with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Getting started with Microsoft 365 Copilot is easy. As long as you have Microsoft 365 for Enterprise or Business (this includes all three tiers of Basic, Standard, or Premium), you will have 365 Copilot included in your plan. 

You can set up 365 Copilot for your suite of Microsoft products both on computer and mobile. In other words, Copilot works with both the desktop and mobile apps. This allows for seamless use of Copilot across devices and apps, ensuring optimum efficiency.

Businesses equipped with Microsoft 365 Copilot can enjoy all the efficiency perks it offers, providing this transformative technology to their employees to build more efficient processes across the board.

At Setup4, we set businesses up for success with Microsoft’s comprehensive Office 365 suite. With our expertise, you can have Microsoft 365 customised your business needs from the get-go, including Copilot integration. To get started, get in touch with us today.