The 4 Rules For Keeping Your Business Data Safe

Business ventures can be exciting, but they also come with a lot of risk. Aside from the usual worries about starting a business and whether or not it will succeed, starting a small business also carries the inherent risk of dealing with sensitive information. That risk increases when you’re handling data that can reveal sensitive business information or even personal details about employees, partners, customers, and suppliers. Keeping your data safe is vital to the success of your business venture. It’s just as important as keeping your company legal by following all applicable laws and regulations. If you don’t take steps to keep your data safe now, there will be consequences down the road when your company needs to expand or start a branch office and expansion becomes an option.

Know the risks of your data type

When you start a business venture, chances are you’re also working with a variety of sensitive data. To protect your business data, it’s essential to know the risks involved with handling data of each type. 

Information at risk

Sensitive information can include information about customers, employees, recipes, ingredients, and other proprietary business data. Keeping this data secure requires extra caution and effort. 

Financial data at risk

Finance is a notoriously high-risk area for data breaches. In a breach, hackers can obtain and use financial data to steal money from companies or steal user passwords to access their online accounts. 

Intellectual property at risk

Information that is at risk of being stolen or misused includes trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets of the company.

Keep backup copies of all data

Even if you use end-to-end encryption to protect your business data, it doesn’t mean that no one can intercept it. If a hacker is able to access the data, he or she can also use it to access you. Encryption doesn’t protect you from hackers if you don’t back up your data. It’s important to discuss backup systems with your IT department, as the rules and regulations around backup systems will vary depending on where your office is located. For example, if you’re located in Washington state, you must keep at least two copies of all data: one copy must be kept at the office while the other copy should be kept at a different location.

Establish and enforce strong passwords

Strong password policies are another way to protect your data. When it comes to cybersecurity, it’s not just about protecting your data; it’s about protecting your users’ data. It’s easy for hackers to infect computers if sensitive data is left unsecured. It’s also easy for hackers to access company data if users don’t take basic precautions, such as choosing strong passwords and not sharing passwords with other people. Password policies that include minimum requirements for length, complexity, and uniqueness can help your users choose strong passwords. Strong policies can also help prevent password breaches, as users can’t be careless enough to share passwords with each other.

Carry out audits

Protecting your business data can be a daunting and complex task. That’s why you should proactively carry out audits to ensure that your data protection systems are working as intended. Luckily, there are external cyber security audit services that can help you with this. Utilising an external service can also help you spot safety breaches that you may not see when you’re too close to the issue at hand. 

Conclusion

The risks of dealing with sensitive data are high, but they can be minimized with proper data protection. To protect your data, you need to know the risks it faces and use encryption technology. Keeping backup copies of all data and enforcing strong passwords are also important. If you don’t take these steps now, you’ll be faced with bigger problems down the road when your business needs to grow and expand.