Data protection is a key part of any business. A data breach can have a detrimental impact on businesses of all sizes. Even if you manage to recover all the data lost, it will take a lot to regain the trust of your suppliers and customers.
This is why every business must have a data protection plan in place.
As a business, you’ll hold vast amounts of data and information. Everything from employee IDs to customer preferences, sales projections, and bank account details are used and passed through your systems every day. Without the right protection in place, all of this data could fall into the wrong hands.
But it’s not just the fault of hackers infiltrating your systems. In actual fact, a significant amount of data breaches come from within the company. Accidentally clicking a link in a suspicious email, handing over valuable information via a webchat, or overwriting a document are all within anyone’s capabilities.
Instead of leaving it up to fate, there are several things you need to include in your data protection plan. Protection is the responsibility of HR, IT, and the rest of the company, so it shouldn’t be left to one department.
How to create a data protection plan
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Assess employee access needs
When it comes to a company’s server, there are thousands of documents and folders used by a multitude of departments.
But not every employee needs access to every file.
To protect company data, the first step is to limit the people who can access it. This can be done through the real-time authorization or accessibility rules tailored to each individual.
File access can also be broken down into permissions too. While some staff may need to view files and visit certain folders, they may not need editing rights. This can help prevent overwriting important documents and reduce the number of inaccuracies in the data itself.
It’s also a good idea to use authentication tools like access cards, fingerprint recognition, or fobs to provide staff access to different areas of the business premises. That way, data can be stored away correctly with only the relevant people being able to access it.
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Regular backups
You’ll no doubt have had your IT department bang on about just how important regularly saving and backing up files is. And they’re not wrong.
Key data should be backed up onto additional servers as often as possible. If you’re a large business, even an hour of lost data could have a detrimental impact.
The easiest way to regularly back up data is to implement automatic backups onto external servers. That way, you don’t have to rely on anyone remembering to do it.
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Software updates
Finally, ensure that all software is up to date. Online threats are ever-changing, and their complexity grows stronger by the minute. Keeping your security software and other systems up to date will prevent malware and other threats from going undetected.
Don’t forget to encourage staff to keep their other devices – laptops, tablets, and mobiles – up to date, too.
