The Importance of Security in Business
by Arina Smith Business Security Systems 21 October 2020
When you hear the phrase “a secure business”, you probably think more about financial stability than anything else. You’ll probably picture a business that is making a healthy profit and continuing to increase its revenue year on year. While this is something every business strives for, it’s important that they are also secure when it comes to protecting their data.
Depending on the size of a company, they could be dealing with hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of pieces of sensitive data every day. Unfortunately, there are hackers out there that would also love to be able to access the same information. Here’s why it’s important to make sure your business’ data is secure.
The big consequences
Reports of major companies’ systems being hacked and customers’ financial data stolen are becoming a common sight in the news across the world. The fines that are then dished out to these companies for not protecting said data are just as headline-grabbing as the original crime. Although you might think a business is a big victim in a hacking crime, they will still be punished if data is stolen from them.
For example, the credit card company Capital One was fined $80 million after hackers gained access to around 100 million customer records last year. While these are big numbers, it’s also important to remember that small businesses are just at risk of being hacked and forced to pay a fine.
Make deals in a safe space
When it comes to making big money deals, most people would prefer to make them face to face rather than over the internet. In this busy world, and especially with coronavirus restrictions in place across the globe, often it’s impossible or just extremely impractical to carry out deals in person. As every negotiation involves highly sensitive personal, financial, and business data, it’s important that you are confident every piece of information you share with your colleagues and potential customers are safe from hackers.
Avoid sending important files over email or sharing them on platforms like Dropbox or Google Docs. Personal accounts like these are worryingly easy to gain access to. Instead, use a specially designed virtual deal room to carry out any negotiations. These include several added features to protect all the documents needed to complete a deal. For example, the software provided by Secure Docs can watermark documents, set different levels of access for different accounts, and also force users to sign a non-disclosure agreement before gaining access.
Password protection
While it’s important to protect those big deals, it’s just as important to protect the data you use day today. You might think that the data wouldn’t be attractive to hackers, but it is just at risk of being stolen. Force your colleagues to change their passwords every few weeks. Encourage them to pick a strong password with multiple different characters and a mix of upper- and lower-case letters. It’s also important they don’t use the same passwords for any personal accounts outside of work because if these are hacked, then the data could be used to hack business accounts.
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