Q: What steps can I take to protect my data?
Sep 16 2011
Answered by: Ross Walker Ask a question
Go beyond the devices. In today’s connected world, businesses need to think beyond just protecting their own desktops and email. You need to take a step back, look at all areas that your information is being stored, and protect those areas accordingly. Think of it in levels; level one could be your own computers in the office, level two could be mobile phones, laptops and USBs and level three could be the cloud. Wherever your information resides, it needs to be protected.
Protect your passwords. It might sound obvious, but we can’t emphasise this point enough – password management is crucial to making sure that a compromised device does not mean compromised information. Enforce password management policies and maintain strong passwords to help protect information stored on devices that could get either lost, stolen or hacked. A strong password is hard to guess (ie it’s not just your pet’s name or your street) and contains a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. For example, “password” would be spelt, ”p@33w@rd”, if the rules were followed, but don’t use anything that obvious!
Always back-up. Floods, system failures, fires – there are a number of scenarios that could potentially wipe out a company’s entire database. Your information is the driving force behind your business, a backup and recovery solution is not just a nice to have, it’s critical for any organisation operating today.
Educate and train. Just implementing security software and policies is not enough. Make sure your employees are aware of the threats out there and what they can do as individuals to combat them. Employees that are in the know are better equipped to help protect your business information.
Give spam the boot. We don’t waste time and space with physical junk mail, so why should we waste time with digital? Trawling through spam emails and dealing with malicious ones can eat into valuable time. A good mail and Web security solution can minimise the time spent sorting out full junk mail boxes (which all staff will be thankful for) and add another layer of security to your information.
Comments