Just because your company isn’t the size of Microsoft doesn’t mean that your data doesn’t need protecting. In fact, since small businesses tend to have closer relationships with their customers, keeping that information safe is tantamount to their very survival. With the threat of natural disasters, data theft and employee error, ensuring the safety of business and customer information is critical to their operations. Here are three ways small business owners should protect their data.
1. Separate Sensitive Data
For data protection or BI systems to be effective, they can’t be burdened with unimportant and non-critical information. The first step in a small business protecting their data is to take an inventory of the company’s sensitive data. Once that data is identified, separate it from other data, so more resources can go into protecting that data, and not wasting money or other resources in keeping watch over non-essential data. This way, even in the event of a hack, disaster or theft, there’s a chance that vital information is still safe. For data protection in small businesses, the key is quality, not quantity.
2. Encrypt Sensitive Data
Isolating important data is one thing, but unencrypted data that falls into the wrong hands is still a problem. Therefore, a small business must encrypt their data, making it not only inaccessible to outside infiltration, but incomprehensible even if security is compromised. With data becoming increasingly mobile – being stored in the cloud, carried out on smartphones, tablets and USB flash drives – small businesses have to be more vigilant than ever in ensuring that their data is seen by their eyes only. Mobile computing has lots of benefits and advantages, but increases the risk of theft and loss. All security and protection features are rendered moot if sensitive data can still be plainly read once it’s accessed. Data encryption is one of the highest levels of protection for a businesses’ data.
3. Get Everyone On Board
Separating important data from the rest of a company’s data, and then encrypting that data, only goes so far if the employees of a business are careless in how they handle that data. That’s why it’s imperative for management to stress due diligence for data protection. Issue memos and reminders to staff to educate and/or remind them of how to watch over the data that’s in their possession. Having a security policy in place also removes some legal liability for the company, since they could prove to insurers, law enforcement, customers and stakeholders that they instituted all possible methods of data protection in the event of data loss.
