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Kubernetes is a de facto platform for managing containerized applications. It provides a rich ecosystem for deployment, scaling, and operations with first-class support (tons of ready configs and documentation) on the Google Cloud platform.
Given the growing importance of data privacy and protection in the digital world today, Kubernetes has a key part to play in helping secure that data.
In today's digital world, protecting personal information is of primary importance. As more organizations allow their employees to interact with AI interfaces for faster productivity gains, there is a growing risk of privacy breaches and misuse of personally identifiable information like names, addresses, social security numbers, email addresses, and more.
Unauthorized exposure or misuse of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) can have severe consequences, such as identity theft, financial fraud, and massive damage to a company's reputation. Developers must, therefore, implement effective measures to detect and redact PII from their databases to comply with data protection regulations and ensure privacy.
In today's digital age, data privacy has become a paramount concern for individuals and organizations alike. With the increasing amount of personal and sensitive information being stored and transmitted online, there is a growing need for robust security measures to protect this data from unauthorized access and misuse. One promising solution to address this challenge is the use of zero-knowledge proofs in large language model chains.
Zero-knowledge proofs are cryptographic protocols that allow one party (the prover) to prove to another party (the verifier) that a certain statement is true without revealing any additional information beyond the validity of the statement itself. In other words, zero-knowledge proofs enable the prover to convince the verifier of the truthfulness of a claim without disclosing any underlying data or secrets.
In the digital era, where data has become the backbone of businesses, it becomes very important to ensure its security and privacy. The huge growth in cloud computing, wherein data is stored and processed remotely, gave rise to various measures for security and privacy. Within these parameters, we would delve into the realm from where data privacy within the context of cloud computing would be discussed. Within this context, we would discuss those measures that have been put into place to tackle these concerns.
Cloud computing is storing and processing data on remote servers accessed through the Internet. This paradigm shift has brought convenience and scalability. It also brings potential vulnerabilities to data breaches.
Organizations are gradually becoming concerned regarding data security in several instances, such as collecting and retaining sensitive information and processing personal information in external environments, which include information sharing and cloud computing. Some of the commonly used solutions, however, do not provide strong and viable protection from privacy disclosures and data theft. Particularly, privacy and risk protection experts are concerned about the security and privacy of data that is used in the process of analytics and then shared externally. As such, organizations need to comply with existing and upcoming regulations for secure processing of sensitive data. From this perspective, new approaches concerning privacy-preserving computing that are clear and sustainable to business processes can present various opportunities while also assisting in finding an appropriate balance between security, privacy, and compliance.
Encrypting data, especially when at rest, is insufficient when it comes to avoiding data breaches. Ideally, data-at-rest encryption leads to a crypto boundary, an aspect that suggests that data is accessible in plaintext. When it comes to addressing plaintext, it is important to note that it is primarily needed for processing, and this boundary usually exists below the point at which a compromise can be experienced. Additionally, data-at-rest encryption does not necessarily support cases where data sharing with other organizations is done. For data to be deemed useful, it has to be accessible through plaintext within various applications since this plays a significant role in reducing encryption’s protection capability. However, a disadvantage of typical data masking techniques is that they do not largely support the protection of behavioral or transactional data. Notably, the limitations of data masking and data-at-rest have led to a gradual increase in devising new strategies for data protection, especially when advanced approaches tend to protect data with regard to where the traditional encryption and data masking techniques fail.
In the modern digital epoch, the importance of data management can hardly be overstated. Data is no longer just an operational byproduct but the lifeblood of organizations, fueling everything from strategic decisions to customer interactions. However, in this race for data-driven insights, data privacy often emerges as the jigsaw piece that doesn't quite fit. The recent uptick in consumer awareness, enabled by social media and news cycles, further adds to the urgency surrounding data privacy issues. High-profile data breaches have shifted the focus from merely collecting data to securing it effectively. The key question that emerges is: How does the evolving landscape of data privacy regulations intersect with the demands and objectives of modern data management? This blog aims to dissect this complex interplay, shining a light on the challenges and opportunities that lie at this intersection.
Understanding the legal framework surrounding data privacy is vital. Global regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the United States have set stringent standards for the handling and storage of data. These regulations are designed with core principles in mind, such as data minimization and the right to be forgotten.
When deploying any application that holds customer or user data, both data compliance and data privacy are important areas to consider. Yet these two areas of data management are sometimes misunderstood. This article will shed some light on the differences between data compliance and data privacy.
Data compliance refers to the requirement to meet certain legal obligations around the collecting, processing, and storing of data.
Do you use web forms to collect and store sensitive or personal information? It’s not uncommon, but have you ever stopped to consider whether anyone else can access this information?
Privacy is important, and so is speed. Do you display data from a database on your WordPress site? Have you noticed that it can sometimes be slow to load? Ugh…that’s never fun.
Over at CampusPress, we recently had a customer experiencing both of these problems.
They were migrating to our service and already using a popular WordPress form plugin to collect and store private files from job applicants. This was on their main, high traffic marketing website, which meant that their web team had full access to personal applicant information, and any potential security breach of the website could expose all this data, too. This definitely was not an example of good privacy practice.
The customer also was using a form for sorting and displaying complex directory information for their large organization. When searching the directory, it would often time out or load extremely slowly. Despite all of the problems, the customer didn’t want to leave their form plugin because they had invested so much time into building their systems around it and training their staff to use it.
This customer isn’t alone or unique, and although these common problems haven’t always had easy fixes, now they do. It was looking for better solutions for sites like these that led me to the new FortressDB plugin.
FortressDB is a plugin for WordPress that now easily integrates with our form building Forminator plugin.
Instead of defaulting to the WordPress database, or saving files in the wp-uploads public folder, FortressDB stores data and files on secure Google Cloud servers and gives you full control of who has access to it.
It uses native WordPress user roles to control access rights and there are built-in Gutenberg blocks to display data blazingly fast in tables, charts, and maps. FortressDB offers 3 different locations for storing data: Europe, the USA, and the UK.
When you create an account, you choose which location to use, and you can even store data in FortressDB in a different country than your website may be hosted.
So…
The WordPress database is designed to store content for the public web. Increased regulations and responsibilities in privacy laws mean that now more than ever, we must consider where and how data is stored.
For example, many WordPress hosts do not encrypt WordPress database data at rest or in backups. This might be reasonable for content on your site that is public on the web anyway, but for more sensitive data, FortressDB can help ensure full encryption.
File uploads, even if you use privacy plugins to set a site as private, may still be discoverable by search engines or by direct links. Using FortressDB, you can guarantee that everything you set to private really is private.
Large datasets can add significant size and bloat to your WordPress database, but FortressDB will keep form data out of your WordPress database to help with performance.
It is fast too, check out this million row demo. You can compare it to how a CDN delivers rich-media content. Instead of serving images or videos, it serves data.
There are other solutions for collecting and storing data outside of WordPress, but this is the only native WordPress plugin we are aware of, and definitely the only plugin that integrates with Forminator in just a few clicks (with more form plugin integrations coming).
There’s an API for a simple way of extending and using the secure databases without form plugins too.
As you’ll see, it’s quick and easy to set up FortressDB with Forminator.
Here’s a breakdown of how to integrate the two. Then, I’ll show you a video demonstration.
Once you have FortressDB installed and have signed up for a free account, you’ll be all set to integrate with Forminator.
With either a new or existing form in Forminator, you can sync FortressDB by going to Edit Form and Integration.
From here, you simply click Activate App. As long as you have FortressDB installed, activated, and you’re logged in, you’ll be all set. FortressDB will appear as one of your connected apps.
It will then confirm that you want to connect…
…and from this point upon hitting Connect, your form is synced to FortressDB as a Table.
You can access it at any time by going to the FortressDB admin area and clicking Secure Forms. Here, you’re able to review any user that has filled out a form and all of the fields of information that were created with Forminator. It also includes the date and time it was created.
You can edit information on objects by clicking on each one individually.
In the Access rights area, you can also limit users’ access to the database based on roles.
Also, you can view stats at any time from the Stats tab. This will show you the total rows that are new for a particular amount of time.
To see all of this put together and in action, here’s a quick video demonstration.
With the release of Forminator Pro 1.13, there is now an eSignature feature on forms so that your users can sign a form and submit. FortressDB stores the form and keeps the signature separate in its database.
In Forminator, you just add the eSignature field to any form.
Now a user can sign and submit a form by signing with their mouse, keyboard pad, or with their fingers or a digital pencil, when applicable.
The signature is then saved as an image .PNG file in FortressDB. You can download it at any time in the admin.
To see exactly how this operates, check out this quick example.
With Forminator and FortressDB, it’s simple, easy, and safe to have your eSignatures secured.
For more information on eSignatures with Forminator, including how to incorporate an upload signature option, you can find out more in this article.
FortressDB and Forminator are both free, so give them a shot and try them out for yourself and see how well they work together. Then, if needed, you can upgrade both accordingly. Upgrading allows for additional features, such as additional WordPress sites with FortressDB and the eSignature option with Forminator Pro.
Plus, if you need to upgrade, we’ve scored a 50% discount for WPMU DEV members over on our Partnership page.
Give it a try along with Forminator and let us know what you think, for security sake.
Privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA are changing the way data is collected and used. Data-driven organizations use data collaboration to understand their customers and research organizations that rely on data collaboration to advance research are being restricted. As more privacy regulations come online, what can organizations do to future-proof their use of data, whilst still adhering to privacy regulations?
Technology is now available that will allow organizations to continue to collaborate without ever exposing or moving the underlying data.