A data breach can be catastrophic for a company, especially for a small one. So, you need to be prepared for this ever-emerging threat. Both as a business owner and employee you need to make sure you are taking preventive steps you can to help keep your company’s data secure. The most essential place to start is by knowing what the common causes of data breaches are and how to avoid them before they cause damage.
This is a contributed post. Please refer to my disclosure for more information.
Following some steps to safety, including how to protect your work-space, click here data room solution, to stay safer when getting emails, and creating strong passwords you can help to ensure your business is protected as much as possible:
Protecting Data At Your Work-Space
If you walk away from your desk while in the middle of a project that contains sensitive business information, you need to take some precautions to protect your company data from others and visitors who aren’t authorized to see that information.
When you step away, make sure it is locked. You can take the steps to change your preference that will require your user credentials and password when unlocking your computer. After any meetings, clear away all information, If you print something, collect it straight away. Always keep sensitive information in a secure location, and make sure you are aware of your surroundings.
Be Aware Of Phishing Emails
These are emails that contain fake information and are commonly used by hackers and criminals to target your identity credentials, and ultimately gain control of your network and computers. This can result in company information being stolen and used. They will usually appear as though they are legitimate emails from a trusted source, but will often have a link to an attachment or download. It is crucial to have phishing training to make sure your team can identify these suspicious emails. You should always delete suspicious emails without opening them an make sure your staff is trained in this area too.
Stronger Passwords
Using a strong password is a really simple yet effective way of protecting your business and it’s data. Set up a policy that requires you and your employees to change passwords on a regular basis and make sure you set guidelines like:
- They’re not to contain your name or ID
- They should be at least 7 characters long
- They should contain a special character ( ! ? “ £ $ % @ #)
- They must contain a number
Ensuring you and your employees use a strong password and change them often make sit more difficult for thieves to access information. Make sure passwords are never shared, and whose something that is cryptic so it’s harder to guess, however, it should be memorable with the need to write it down.
Learn To Recognize Social Engineering
This work much like fitting together a puzzle, social engineers get what they need by gathering small pieces of information from several sources, including social media, and other platforms like LinkedIn. As people may not be who they say they are. You should always verify them before sharing information. Call them back on their work number or send a code word to their work email address and ask them to call back with it.
These four areas should help you to put steps into place that will protect yours and your business’s information and data. Are there any other steps that you take to do this? Please share them in the comments below.
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