Joe J.Strickland: How to Protect Your Data

Cybercrime incidents are on the rise and unfortunately, these crimes cost businesses a lot. Many small businesses are not prepared for cyber crimes because they don’t have the necessary budget and manpower for this. However, they should also be careful because no one knows whom hackers are going to come after. Therefore, every business should be prepared for hackers and protect its data. Below you can find some methods for data protection.

Know Your Data: Know what you are storing and how sensitive this information is. For example; what are you storing for customer data? Phone numbers, address information, and credit card information are more sensitive compared to email addresses and names of customers. Also, identify what you use this data for and where you store it. If it is not useful for you to store some of this information, then don’t.
Control Access to Your Data: Restrict access levels. Not everyone on your company should have access to customer data. Only certain people should have the necessary passwords to access sensitive data. You should have a company policy for access restriction and keep the names of employees who can access this data. If one of these employees quit, then, you can immediately cancel his/her access to the system.
Backup Your Data: It is very critical to back up sensitive data. You can do an on-site and off-site backup. Also, you should encrypt your data while backing up. Otherwise if your back-up is stolen, then anyone can access it. Most companies prefer to back up their data after business hours and generally at night. It is important to regularly check your backups to see if your backup system is still working.
Train Your Employees: Train your employees about the importance of data security. They are the ones dealing with data so they should know how to protect it and the fraud methods. It would be easier for them, if you issue a security guideline listing the dos and don’ts. This way they can be sure of what to do, if they come across with a questionable situation.
Use Paper Shredders: We can live in a digital world but still we use papers for documentation. Do not just tear papers up and throw them into the thrash can because the best way to get rid of papers with sensitive information is using a paper shredder.

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