When you own your own business, you need to be able to keep your sensitive information and data as secure as possible. This isn’t just because of competitors out there who could steal it, but hackers who look to overtake the systems of small businesses are there to thieve financial information. Safeguarding your online assets has to be a priority and part of your financial and your business plan. If you aren’t looking after your online data, then you are going to find yourself in a difficult position.
As a business, you have to understand your personal risks of being online. Businesses face both malicious threats and unintentional breaches of confidentiality. Malicious threats are those that include the deliberate hacking of IT systems and theft of passwords to access confidential information. The unintentional data breaches happen when an employee loses a laptop or smartphone. The information is picked up elsewhere by accident, but both threats can still be critical to your business. Your priority has to be keeping your business under lock and key and we’ve got four of the simplest ways that you can do this:
Network. Your IT network should be looked after by managed IT services where possible. The experts looking after your information are going to be able to use the correct software to protect your IT systems from malware. If you haven’t heard of it, malware is malicious software that digs through the walls of your security and cause a lot of damage without you even knowing about it. If you have a system with excellent security, you can ensure that your employee usage is heavily managed, and you can watch the data that gets shared across all company-wide devices.
Usage. When you bring new people into your organisation, they will be given a login and password to use to use the systems and access information. If you are watching the usage from your staff, you can block and control any safety breaches that are internal. It’s important not to allow employees have access to all company data but limit it to only what they need to see and what they need to know. A lot of different customer relationship management systems can enable your organisation to control who sees what and when.
Training. Some of the breaches in security are internally, but not all of these are intentional. It’s very important for you to be able to train your staff in how to use the company IT systems. It will also help you and them to be able to manage remote usage correctly, so that those that work from home can use their remote access in safe places. A lot of breaches that are internal are usually down to lack of education.
Storage. Your organisation should consistently ensure that data is stored in a safe place, such as the cloud. Regularly backing up your data is important, as is random security checks.
Don’t allow your business information to be vulnerable; you will only open yourself up to a lot of trouble that way!
