Ways to Keep Your Company’s Data Secure

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5 Jan. 2021. You’ll have heard a lot about the importance of keeping data safe in recent times. There have been several high-profile data hacks that have cost a lot of money, with companies, individuals, and government bodies all being targeted. While the chances of your business being targeted by cybercriminals is small, it’s vitally important that all companies take the threat seriously, because there’s just so much damage that it can cause. Indeed, if the breach is severe enough, then it could even spell the end of your venture.

So how do you keep your company’s data secure? We’ll take a look below.

Invest in the software/hardware

It’s a game of cat and mouse between cyber defense experts and cybercriminals. The defense experts come up with advanced security measures, and the criminals attempt to get around them — and then the process repeats itself. If you’re going to be as well protected as possible, then it’s important that you’re throwing your company behind the security of the experts. If you’re using outdated software or hardware, then you’ll be giving people with nefarious motivations a chance to enter your system. Make sure that they can’t by keeping all your software up to date with the latest security measures.

Ongoing employee training

Your employees are there to help push your business forward, but it’s also true that they can be something of a liability for your company. Indeed, the majority of cyber hacks happen because an employee has committed a basic error. No-one’s perfect, but you can at least reduce the likelihood of these things happening by providing regular training for your employees. Don’t assume that there’ll be experts in the best computer security practices; why would they be? Spending a little bit of time each month going over the protocols for data will help to keep things more secure.

Customer verification

Sometimes, a hack happens because of an advanced, sophisticated attack. But not always. Sometimes, the details that they need are just given to them directly, over the phone no less. That’s because they can simply pretend to be a customer, and receive sensitive information regarding an account. This may primarily affect your customer, but it’ll be your fault, and it’ll cost you in one way or another. So make sure you’re investing in your customer verification processes. Using an address search platform can help to verify a customer’s identity. You’ll know that if they can list an old address from many years ago without hesitation, then they’ll be the real deal.

Back it up

Even if you do take all the required steps to keep your data safe from criminals, there’s still a chance that things could go wrong. If all your data is saved at your office, then all it could take is one flood, and you’ll have lost everything. For this reason, it’s important that you’re backing up your data in the cloud. That way, your key information will always be safe and secure, no matter what happens at your facility.

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