Secure Your Dashboard: Use the Essential Steps to Protect Your Data

Introduction

An Excel dashboard is a powerful data visualization tool that allows users to turn large amounts of data into a concise and informative graphic display. Excel dashboards can be used for a variety of business purposes, from financial reporting and tracking customer information to project management and more. But to ensure the security of the dashboard and its data, various steps must be taken.

Definition of Excel Dashboards

An Excel dashboard is a data visualization tool that enables users to view multiple data sets in a single graphical interface. It can contain multiple worksheets, tables, lists, charts, and other visuals, all in one place. By offering a comprehensive overview of multiple key performance indicators (KPIs), an Excel dashboard provides an efficient way to track and assess data.

Benefits of Securing Excel Dashboards

Securing Excel dashboards can be beneficial in many ways. Users can protect their dashboards from unauthorized access, keep the data they contain safe, and maintain the integrity of the workbook. As a result, Excel dashboards can be used to share confidential information without compromising security and privacy. Additionally, appropriate security measures provide users with peace of mind that their data is secure.

Protect against unauthorized access
Keep data safe
Maintain workbook integrity
Share confidential information securely
Provide users with peace of mind

Understanding the Vulnerability of Excel Dashboard

Excel is widely used for data analysis and for the development of interactive dashboards. However, without proper security measures in place, data stored in Excel spreadsheets can be vulnerable to attack. To protect your dashboard from unauthorized access, it is important to understand the risks associated with using Excel.

Unsaved Spreadsheets

Excel spreadsheets can be left open or unsaved on a machine for long periods of time. Unsaved spreadsheets can be vulnerable if left open and exposed to the public. An attacker could gain access to the data stored in the spreadsheet and use it to their advantage.
Unauthorized Data Access

Unauthorized individuals or applications can gain access to an Excel dashboard if the proper security measures are not in place. These unauthorized individuals or applications can steal or modify the data in the Excel spreadsheet.
Data Leaks

Data leaks can occur when data stored in an Excel spreadsheet is not properly secured. Attackers can exploit data leaks to gain access to confidential or sensitive data stored in the Excel spreadsheet.

Password Protection

Using a password to protect your Excel dashboard is a great way to keep unauthorized users from accessing sensitive data or making unapproved changes. Read on to learn how to create a password and gain some tips for keeping it secure.

Creating a Password

Creating a password for your Excel dashboard is simple:

Open the dashboard file
In the upper ribbon of the Excel application, click the Review tab
Navigate to the Protect Sheet button
Enter a password
When prompted, reenter the password
Save the changes

Password Security Tips

Now that you know how to create a password for your Excel dashboard, it is important to practice good password security. Here are some tips for creating a secure password:

Never reuse the same password for multiple accounts
Include a combination of upper and lower-case letters, symbols, and numbers
Make your password at least 8 characters long
Change your password regularly

Implement File Level Security

Excel dashboards are valuable tools for collecting, sharing, and tracking data, making it all the more important to ensure their security. File level security is an important step in the process of securing your Excel dashboard. With the right measures, you can rest easy knowing that your data is safe and secure.

Add Access Permissions

The first step in implementing file level security for your Excel dashboard is to add access permissions. This involves restricting who has access to the file, as well as what level of access they have. For example, some users may be given read-only permission, while others may be given permission to make changes to the file. You can also restrict access to certain parts of the file, such as allowing only certain users to view the dashboard.

Organizing Access Hierarchy

The next step in file level security is to organize an access hierarchy. To do this, you need to establish roles and assign access permissions accordingly. This can be done on an individual level, or you can create groups of users with similar access rights. This will ensure that only the intended users have access to the file, helping to reduce the risk of someone gaining unauthorised access to your data.

By implementing these two measures, you can effectively secure your Excel dashboard. Once implemented, you can be confident that your data is protected from unauthorised access, giving you peace of mind that your data is safe.

Utilizing Intelligent Data Masking

Data in your Excel dashboard can be extremely sensitive and require additional protection. An important layer of protection utilizes intelligent data masking. Data masking allows specific data values to be blocked from being shown, while still allowing the original data set to be displayed. Utilizing this method gives you the proof that the dataset is accurate, while still protecting private information.

Protecting Data Values

Data masking is an efficient way to protect data values from appearing as defined content. When exploiting data masking, the data values will be hidden in order to de-identify it or prevent it from being disclosed to unauthorized users. This allows for robust protection of the data on the Excel dashboard.

Level of Masking Required

When data masking is used there are different levels of masking which can be used. Often the decision of which type of masking to use is one that requires considering the sensitivity of the data which is present.

Character Masking – This form of masking will replace all the characters of a data value with a preset character that is not actually in the data set.
Partial Masking – Partial masking will take only parts of the data values and obscure them, providing only partial information for an audience looking at the dashboard.
Complete Masking – Complete masking will make data values appear blank or empty, replacing the data with unrecognizable data.

Occasionally, different depths of masking can be used. For example, one group of users may require access to partial data while another group of users may only be provided access to a more secure data set through complete masking.

Utilizing Single Sign-On (SSO) for Dashboard Access

Organizations can utilize Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication to improve the security of their Excel dashboard by limiting user access. SSO is a user authentication method where one set of credentials is used to access multiple applications. It eliminates the need to remember multiple passwords, while also providing an additional layer of security.

Linking Dashboard to Corporate Network

When an organization needs to share an Excel dashboard with multiple users, they can link it to the corporate network to enable SSO authentication. With SSO, users can securely and easily access the dashboard via the corporate network. IT admins can also use it to control access to the dashboard and ensure that only authorized users have access. This provides an additional layer of security, as it requires users to have their corporate credentials in order to access the dashboard.

Limiting Dashboard Access

When using SSO for dashboard access, the organization can control who has access to the dashboard by setting up different permission levels. For example, managers can be given full access to the dashboard, while employees can only view the data. This ensures that only authorized users have access to the sensitive data.

IT admins can use SSO to control and monitor access to the dashboard.
Organizations can assign different permission levels to users, depending on their role in the organization.
SSO provides an additional layer of security, as users must first authenticate using their corporate credentials.

Conclusion

Excel dashboards may contain important business information that needs to be secure. Unfortunately, these dashboards are difficult to secure and may be easily open to access and exploitation. Therefore, to ensure the security of your dashboard and the privacy of your company’s data, it is important to take the necessary steps to make sure your dashboard remains as secure as possible.

Summary of Key Points

In this blog post, we discussed the important steps to take to make sure your Excel dashboard remains secure. These steps include:

Using a password to secure your Excel Dashboard.
Enabling cell-level security.
Protecting charts and graphics.
Setting up user role-based access.
Making sure to backup your Excel Dashboard.
Enabling data encryption.
Adding two-factor authentication.

Call to Action

It is essential to take the necessary steps to make sure that your Excel Dashboard is secure, especially if it contains crucial business data. Therefore, start taking the necessary steps to protect your dashboard from unauthorized access as soon as possible.