Written by
Steven Choong
Published on
April 29, 2025
Who sees what? That’s where breaches begin.
Picture this: your marketing intern is looking for campaign assets on a shared drive and stumbles upon a spreadsheet with customer NRICs.
She forwards it to your creative agency—innocently trying to help.
But that one click? It just triggered a compliance nightmare.
That’s how most data breaches happen. Not by hackers in hoodies, but by well-meaning employees with too much access.
Every extra person who can access personal data is a new point of failure.
More access = more chances of:
You wouldn’t give the office intern your company’s safe combination.
So why give them access to sensitive data?
Here’s how to lock down access—fast.
Open your shared drives, CRMs, email platforms.
Who can view personal data? Who can edit?
Remove access for anyone who doesn’t need to see it.
Tip: Start with former staff or vendors you no longer work with—low-hanging fruit.
Don’t leave access decisions to chance.
Set clear roles—HR only sees employee info. Marketing only sees newsletter signups.
Limit access by function, not trust.
It’s not personal—it’s protection.
Build a culture where limited access is the default.
Remind your team: If you’re not sure whether you should have access… you probably shouldn’t.
Even better—require approval before sensitive data access is granted.
In most companies, data overexposure isn’t malicious—it’s accidental.
But regulators don’t care whether the breach was intentional or not.
They care about whether you took reasonable steps to prevent it.
You don’t need to overhaul your whole system.
Start small: pick one folder, one tool, one team—and cut back access by 20%.
You’ll instantly lower your risk, without disrupting your operations.
Want to prevent accidental data exposure? Contact our team or explore our DPO services to review your access controls and reduce your compliance risk.
We're here for you every step of the journey. From company formation to compliance, we've got your back. Let’s get it right, from the start.