Keeping Your Business and Data Safe

It has always been a good idea to pay attention to the security of your business but in today's electronic age, it takes on new meaning. After all, we often have electronic data that is of a very sensitive nature, either having information that is pertinent to our employee's or to our customers. Not only is it important for you to make sure that the information is protected to keep yourself in business, it is also the law in many cases as data usage is often governed by a superior authority. Here are a few things for you to keep in mind which will help you to keep your data safe and keep yourself in business.

Before I start talking about the data that you use on a daily basis, it's important for me to discuss data that may be out of date. I'm talking about throwing away old computers, smart phones and other electronic devices. Although it would be nice to think that the information on those computers was not going to be used by others, that is rarely the case. As you are likely aware, people will scour through the garbage and look for anything that can be used to their benefit. That is why it is important for you to destroy hard drives and other storage devices before you throw them out to the curb.

How much downloading goes on at your place of business? You likely have employees that are connected to the Internet and although they may need the Internet to take care of their day-to-day job, they might need to be limited in some way or another. If your employees have free reign on the Internet, they may end up downloading something that is going to corrupt their workstation and run the possibility of making your entire network vulnerable to outside attack. It's a good idea if you only allow downloads by those with administrative permissions as that will help to limit the possibility that something will go wrong.

Have you considered using some type of Linux disk encryption to help protect your data? This can be done on each individual workstation or you can use Web server encryption software to keep the entire network safe. In doing so, you are not only protecting the data from being used by other individuals, you are also protecting it from anyone within your business that should not have access to it.

That brings us to another sensitive point that needs to be discussed. Although we would like to be able to trust all of our employees, it's important for us to make sure that they are who they say they are before we begin using their services. Run a background check when you are considering hiring any employee and contact their former employers to get more information about the services that they provide. Even after you have hired somebody, keep in mind that they must be constantly educated as to the proper use of computers, the Internet and the network to make sure that things remain as secure as possible.