Nearly every business today relies on vast amounts of data to run. Data Technology companies, or DataTech for short, are at the center of it all. They’re the logging platforms, data aggregators, integration tools, and visualization dashboards businesses use to clean up and make sense of raw data. Given how valuable it is to businesses, data is also an incredibly attractive target for cybercriminals.

A security breach in a DataTech company doesn’t just mean bad press, it means exposing sensitive customer data, losing competitive intelligence, and potentially violating major data protection regulations. Not ideal.

So, let’s talk about what DataTech companies can do to protect themselves, and the businesses who rely on them.

Software Security Risks for DataTech Companies

DataTech companies don’t just process data, they hold the keys to an entire organization’s digital kingdom. If attackers manage to compromise a data logging platform, as one example of a potential target, they could gain access to everything from internal logs to confidential customer details. Here are a few reasons why security should be at the top of every DataTech company’s priority list:

1. Data is Your Business, So It’s Everyone’s Target

Storing and processing sensitive data is a high-stakes game. Whether it’s personally identifiable information (PII), financial transactions, or proprietary business analytics, if it’s valuable, someone out there wants to steal it. And if they can’t steal it, they might just encrypt it and hold it for ransom instead.

2. Regulatory Risk is Ongoing

GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, PCI-DSS… the list of data protection laws keeps growing, and none of them are optional. A security lapse doesn’t just mean an awkward press release, it means audits, fines, and possibly losing your ability to operate in certain regions or industries. The business impacts of non-compliance can be devastating.

3. A Breach Can Destroy Trust in a Heartbeat

DataTech companies thrive on customer trust. Organizations rely on their data platforms to be secure, compliant, and reliable. One breach, and suddenly customers start questioning whether they should be trusting their data to a different provider, one that hasn’t made the latest headlines for all the wrong reasons.

4. Supply Chain Security is Your Security

Your customers expect you to protect their data, but are you sure your own third-party integrations are secure? A single compromised API connection or vulnerable open-source library can serve as an entry point for attackers, putting your entire system, and your customers’ business, at risk.

Best Practices for Securing DataTech Platforms

The good news? DataTech companies can take proactive steps to strengthen their security and keep their platforms safe. Here’s where to start:

1. Secure the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

Embedding security into the software development process helps prevent vulnerabilities from reaching production, where they can be exploited. Additionally, fixing security flaws early is easier and cheaper than patching them after an incident. 

Implementing static code analysis in your CI/CD pipeline ensures you can identify security flaws before deployment. Look for a tool with command-line integration to ensure your team can set up code scanning and vulnerability management from within the tools they use to build software. In addition, make sure the CLI integration is flexible so your team can set up scans in the way that works best for them, including with the right frequency, naming, and rules applied.

2. Encrypt Everything, Everywhere

If data is your business, encryption is your best friend. Ensure that all data is encrypted, whether at rest or in transit, using strong standards like AES-256. Bonus points for implementing zero-trust architecture to ensure that even internal data access is restricted on a need-to-know basis.

3. Access Controls: Stop Letting Everyone In

Implement strict access controls using role-based access control (RBAC) and multi-factor authentication (MFA). The fewer people who can access sensitive data, the fewer opportunities there are for attackers to exploit weak credentials.

4. Automate Vulnerability Management

Your software stack is only as secure as its weakest dependency. Regularly scan your applications for vulnerabilities, apply patches, and ensure that all third-party integrations are kept up to date. If an attacker gets in because you forgot to update a library from 2015, that could have devastating consequences.

5. Secure APIs Like Your Business Depends on It (Because It Does)

APIs are the backbone of data integrations, but they’re also a huge attack vector. Use authentication tokens, implement rate limiting, and monitor API activity for suspicious behavior. If you’re exposing customer data via an API, make sure that API isn’t the weakest link in your security chain.

6. Monitor Everything and Tailor Alerts to What Matters Most

Logging and monitoring solutions should be more than just a checkbox for compliance. Real-time threat detection, anomaly detection, and automated incident response can help stop an attack before it becomes a full-scale breach. Just remember: a security alert doesn’t help if no one acts on it. The ability to tailor alerts to flag teams about vulnerabilities that are present in current applications, and that present the most risk, based on criteria like severity, exploitability, and business risk, is essential to prevent alert fatigue, where teams tune out alerts because there are so many of them and then they miss something important.

AppSec as Part of DataTech Security

For DataTech companies, application security isn’t just about keeping hackers out, it’s about ensuring that data integrity remains intact. Software security can be complicated, but SOOS makes it easier. Here’s how:

1. Comprehensive Application Security

SOOS combines Software Composition Analysis (SCA), Static Application Security Testing (SAST), and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) for web apps and APIs into one platform. That means you can identify issues at all stages of development, scan open-source dependencies for known vulnerabilities, and ensure that integrations aren’t exposing sensitive data to unauthorized users. Ultimately, with a unified platform and unlimited deep-tree scanning that looks deep into each application’s dependency tree, regardless of language, you can be confident you can find and fix vulnerabilities before they become a problem.

2. Automated Vulnerability Scanning

With continuous scanning integrated into CI/CD pipelines, SOOS helps development teams catch security flaws early, before they ever reach production. Choose a tool with command-line integration to allow your team to set up code scanning and vulnerability management directly within the tools they already use for software development. Additionally, ensure the CLI integration is flexible, enabling your team to configure scans according to their preferred setup, including customizing frequency, naming conventions, and applied rules.

3. Risk Prioritization (Because Not All Vulnerabilities Are Equal)

Not every vulnerability is a high-risk issue. SOOS prioritizes risks based on severity, impact, and exploitability so that teams can focus on fixing the most critical problems first.

4. Compliance Reporting That Won’t Make You Want to Cry

Keeping up with compliance requirements can be painful. SOOS automates compliance reporting, making it easier to prove that security measures are in place and helping teams sail through audits.

5. Seamless Integration with the Dev Tools You Use Today

Whether you’re using GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, or another DevOps tool, SOOS integrates directly into your workflow so security doesn’t slow development down.

Help to Manage the High Stakes

DataTech companies sit at the intersection of security, compliance, and business intelligence. The stakes are high, but the solutions are within reach. By integrating security best practices into software development, encrypting sensitive data, and implementing easy to use, continuous, and comprehensive application security, DataTech companies can remain the trusted custodians of the world’s data.

With SOOS, security doesn’t have to be a bottleneck. It becomes a seamless part of your development pipeline, helping you stay compliant, protect your customers, and avoid breaches.
Want to keep your data (and your reputation) safe? Contact us or try SOOS for free now.