Data Protection Basics - What Business Owners Need To Know
Your company's computers are full of sensitive information.
Think for a moment about what they contain.
The computer system for a medical clinic holds extremely personal details about patients, just as a law firm's system does about clients.
A retailer or service provider may have details of customer's payments as well as relevant personal information including their address, buying history and demographic information as well as corporate intelligence concerning the competition.
And nearly every business that uses a computer has some bookkeeping, tax preparation or other financial information stored.
Not only is all of this information extremely sensitive, it is difficult and time-consuming to replace.
So protecting it should be a top priority for every business, but too often it isn't.
Sometimes this is because business owners and managers feel the risks are low and the time needed to learn about data protection can't be spared.
But ask yourself this: what would happen if you lost your data? When you consider the incredible loss of staff time and business, not to mention the harm to your reputation, the time it takes to cover the basics of data protection seems pretty minimal.
Running a data backup isn't that hard, but it is important to do it correctly rather than give yourself a false sense of security.
• Know the law: Laws about how businesses can use and save data about their customers vary by jurisdiction, so it is critical to understand your responsibilities and comply with all relevant regulations.
• Backup regularly: Whether you use tapes or a cloud-based remote data storage facility, make sure you are running backups often enough.
Usually a daily data backup makes sense, and doing it every day makes it a regular habit less likely to be forgotten.
• Control access: If you have many employees, consider carefully who needs access to what information.
Restrict access to sensitive data on a need to know basis, and make sure all staff with access understand both how to use the software involved and what their responsibilities are under the law.
• Make sure your network is secure and you have strong and up to date anti-virus protection in place.
Talk to experts about data encryption.
In today's wireless world, it isn't as hard as we'd like for information to be hijacked and misused.
Data security means more than one thing.
It means ensuring that the data you hold is only used appropriately and as permitted.
It means protecting your data from viruses and other malicious threats from hackers.
And it means being prepared to recover from a disaster that damages your system such as an electrical failure, severe weather, fire or other damage by having a top-notch data backup system in place and using it.
Think for a moment about what they contain.
The computer system for a medical clinic holds extremely personal details about patients, just as a law firm's system does about clients.
A retailer or service provider may have details of customer's payments as well as relevant personal information including their address, buying history and demographic information as well as corporate intelligence concerning the competition.
And nearly every business that uses a computer has some bookkeeping, tax preparation or other financial information stored.
Not only is all of this information extremely sensitive, it is difficult and time-consuming to replace.
So protecting it should be a top priority for every business, but too often it isn't.
Sometimes this is because business owners and managers feel the risks are low and the time needed to learn about data protection can't be spared.
But ask yourself this: what would happen if you lost your data? When you consider the incredible loss of staff time and business, not to mention the harm to your reputation, the time it takes to cover the basics of data protection seems pretty minimal.
Running a data backup isn't that hard, but it is important to do it correctly rather than give yourself a false sense of security.
• Know the law: Laws about how businesses can use and save data about their customers vary by jurisdiction, so it is critical to understand your responsibilities and comply with all relevant regulations.
• Backup regularly: Whether you use tapes or a cloud-based remote data storage facility, make sure you are running backups often enough.
Usually a daily data backup makes sense, and doing it every day makes it a regular habit less likely to be forgotten.
• Control access: If you have many employees, consider carefully who needs access to what information.
Restrict access to sensitive data on a need to know basis, and make sure all staff with access understand both how to use the software involved and what their responsibilities are under the law.
• Make sure your network is secure and you have strong and up to date anti-virus protection in place.
Talk to experts about data encryption.
In today's wireless world, it isn't as hard as we'd like for information to be hijacked and misused.
Data security means more than one thing.
It means ensuring that the data you hold is only used appropriately and as permitted.
It means protecting your data from viruses and other malicious threats from hackers.
And it means being prepared to recover from a disaster that damages your system such as an electrical failure, severe weather, fire or other damage by having a top-notch data backup system in place and using it.