Are you worried that you aren’t doing enough to keep your company’s data safe? You have reason to have a concern.
Data breaches are at an all-time high. The first half of 2019 saw 4.1 billion records breached. Unfortunately, that number will likely increase in the future.
If you’re worried that you’re not doing enough to protect your business data, this post will help you get on track. Follow the seven tips below to protect your business storage.
1. Use Strong Passwords
One of the easiest ways to protect your company data is by using strong passwords. Passwords should always be at least eight characters long, include numbers and symbols, and never use words in a dictionary.
Most online applications have strong password policies, so make sure you meet and exceed those policies. If you have internal applications that use passwords, you’ll need to create a custom policy for those apps.
If your team has many accounts and can’t remember all their passwords, investing in a password manager is a great way to solve the problem. It will generate strong passwords for you and make it, so you don’t have to remember them in the future.
2. Train Your Employees on Security
One of the best ways to protect your data is to make sure your team is up to date on the latest best security practices. Since it is impossible to keep the workforce completely offline, educate everyone on what not to do when connected to the internet. Your employees are your most significant security risk, so make sure everyone has this information.
One way to get this knowledge out is to create a training program for employees. You can do this by having a live presentation, creating online videos, having your employees participate in an online training session.
3. Use a VPN for Remote Workers
Using a virtual private network (VPN) provides a secure way to transmit data over an otherwise insecure connection. With a VPN, data is tunnelled from one website to the next with encryption protocols. Without a private key, you can’t view the information that is transmitted between the two sides.
Doing this will protect your remote workers’ data on open wireless networks such as coffee shops, hotels, or airports when they need to connect to their home network to access email or other business applications.
You never know who might be snooping on public networks. Even if someone is looking at your workers’ internet traffic, they won’t be able to read anything.
4. Encrypt Your Data
Even with the best security precautions, there’s always the chance that hackers gain access to your data. The question is, do you store your data in plain text where everyone can read everything?
Encrypting your data protects you when this happens. Encryption is the process of turning standard text into a secret code. This secret code can only be read by using a “key” to reverse the process.
Going through this process means that even if someone has access to your data, they can’t read anything. You can rest easy knowing your sensitive data is secure.
Luckily, encrypting is easy to do these days. There are programs available that let you pick files and folders to encrypt automatically. All you have to do is enter your secret key to decode your files.
5. Limit User Access to Data
The chances are good that not all of your employees need access to all your company data. In many cases, companies go the easy route and provide complete data access to everyone. Doing this is a mistake.
If you want to protect your data, limiting file access to only those who are using the data in their roles and responsibilities is the best practice. Doing this limits potential damage when cyberthreats compromise an employee.
When someone has limited file access, that means a hacker and malware can only steal what they can see. You’ll protect sensitive data and save on damages as a result.
6. Backup Your Data
The best step in protecting your data is backing it up. This assures you that if your hardware fails, you’ll never lose any of your work or important documents. Of course, there are several ways to go about backing up your files.
The first method is physical backups. These are made when you burn your files onto a CD, DVD, USB, or tape. You can store these in a fire-safe place or put them in a drawer.
You’ll want to make sure that you burn your backups onto multiple physical devices so that you’ve got more than one copy of the data if one breaks.
The next method is online backups. These are accessed from anywhere in the world through the Internet and have more benefits than physical backups. Digital backups are more flexible, less expensive, and are accessible on multiple computers.
There is a lot to adding your data to cloud storage, so make sure you discover more about the process and find the right solution for your needs.
7. Get a Security Audit
Even with the best precautions, there’s always the chance that you missed securing part of your company. If you don’t have a full-time security team at your business, this becomes even more of a concern. New security issues are discovered all the time, so you need to stay on top of the latest security threats.
Getting a security audit from an experienced business cybersecurity team will help you patch any holes your company has. They will audit every part of your IT infrastructure, let you know what problems you have, and help you get things fixed.
You can rest easy knowing your data is secured behind a professionally audited IT system.
Now You Know How to Protect Your Business Data
With the reliance on data in business today, you can’t afford to get caught off guard and lose your data. Take every measure you can take to safeguard your business data. A little time and effort today will save you a significant headache in the future.
If you found this post useful and want more tips for running your business online, head back to our blog. We cover the latest tech that will make a difference for your company.