The term data security refers to protecting information that is usually stored in a database of some kind from being destroyed and or stolen. There are multiple International laws and standards in place such as the Data Protection Act that states that personal information needs to be accessible to those it concerns for the fair treating of individuals. There are also standards put in place regarding the ownership of data in order to establish control of the protection responsibility. There are five common technologies available to businesses and others with data security concerns - these technologies include disk encryption, backups, data erasure, data masking, and hardware-based mechanisms. These data security technologies and programs offer protection from anything from virus attacks, to theft, to leaks of information, to accidental loss of any information.

One form of security that is typically used to protect figures and facts from theft is disk encryption. Disk Encryption is a process where statistics and facts are rewritten onto a disk in an unreadable code in order to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access. The there are both encryption software and encryption hardware technologies available for this form of security. Disk encryption can also be referred to as transparent encryption or on the fly encryption. Another form of security for information is using backups to ensure that things are not lost accidentally or intentionally deleted. A backup is simply a copy of the important things that are stored externally for instances where data may need to be restored or recovered. Depending on the amount being stored, the memory capacity of the storage unit may be significant. In today's technologically advanced world, there are several options for data storage. It is also common for businesses to encrypt or take other security precautions before backing the data up. Another form of data security used to delete sensitive information to avoid a leak is data erasure. An erasure is a software technology that completely deletes everything on a specific hard drive. Businesses usually use this method of protection in the event of an employee being fired or leaving.

One of the other forms of technology that protects sensitive information from unauthorized users is data masking. Masking is a process where certain information is secured or made invisible from certain users. An example of masking is online retailers only being able to see the last four digits of the customer's social security number. One of the more advanced security programs are the hardware-based mechanisms for protecting information. These hardware-based mechanisms prevent read and write access to important files instead of one or the other and offers protection from corruption of files and malicious deletion. The hardware systems are usually accessed with a PIN code or some sort of entry security token. Some of the hardware-based mechanisms can also serve as an external backup system.