If you are working ‘in or owning a small to medium-size business, you have to be aware of the fact that your data might be just as important as some big company’s data. Even though you are just at the beginning of your road, if someone with malicious intents sees an entry-point on your company’s data, they will most likely take advantage of it.
In this respect, it is extremely important that you take some precautionary measures when it comes to protecting your company’s data – just one sliver of information in the wrong hands can turn your business upside down.
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Therefore, let’s see which are 6 of the ways through which you can protect your company’s data!
Computer Safety
While working in a company, most people think that they can leave their computer turned on and unlocked when leaving for lunch or such. You have to keep in mind that even the people working in the same building at you might try to target and steal your data.
In this respect, when you leave the computer, you should always lock it or turn it off – naturally, make sure that it is password protected and that no one else knows that password.
Printing Safety
With the addition of wireless printers and such, we all have a much easier time printing the documents we need. However, if what you just printed is important, you should be there on time to pick them up so that nobody else can take a glance over them.
Any printed documents are not to be left in the printer’s tray for too long, as this represents a security risk.
Document Disposal
When disposing of certain documents, simply throwing them away in the garbage bin is not enough. It is well known that, within a household, when disposing of bills or documents, one should either tear them up or shred them beforehand.
We recommend a shredder type for small companies, or something like it for serious big companies. We also advise you to instruct your employees/ work colleagues to shred every single document they want to dispose of. A company’s data is as important as the company itself, naturally.
Phishing Schemes
Hackers can use a phishing e-mail to gain control of almost everything that’s networked within your company – identity, credit card, computer network, passwords, company information.
That’s why, when receiving a certain e-mail, you have to make sure that it is legit before complying with its requests – make sure that it comes from someone you know or someone that has sent you e-mails before, that is something/ a piece of information you were expecting, and that it does not look odd, like having unusual characters or spelling.
Password Safety and Protection
When it comes to passwords, longer is stronger – also, you should not share your passwords with anyone. In order to come up with a stronger, more efficient and secure password, you should take the following into account – they should not contain a part of your name or ID, be at least seven characters long, and contain special characters, such as numbers, symbols, as well as upper- and lower-case letters.
Data Encryption
If your company works mostly with computers, it would be better if they and the data on them were encrypted. For example, if someone were to access your company’s network or even steal a laptop or computer from within your workplace, they’ll have a very hard time decrypting all the information that they found.
In some cases, decryption can take as long as a couple of days – in case they actually found a method to decrypt the data in your network or on one of your devices. Given the technological age we are in, the IT department is something most, if not all companies rely on in terms of protecting your company’s data.
