Data Security and Breach Prevention: Is your Business Safe?
Every company and government organization needs to take data security extremely seriously. After all, security breaches are a public relations nightmare, and they can also lead to expensive lawsuits. For example, Target is currently dealing with reduced profits, several lawsuits and a reduction in stock prices as a result of the fact that a security breach exposed credit and debit card information for 40 million customers. Fortunately, there are steps that every business can take to reduce their odds of dealing with this type of financial disaster.
How Safe are Websites?
The vast majority of American consumers utilize the Internet for shopping, online banking and a wide variety of other essential tasks such as paying for their monthly health insurance bill. In fact, the skittishness that many consumers felt toward Internet purchases a decade ago has almost completely subsided. However, this does not mean that security can become lax. Instead, it is more important now than ever to implement data security measures to protect each consumer's personal information.
Unfortunately, even government websites are not always safe. Vermont officials were recently put in the unenviable position of confirming that a security breach occurred via the state's healthcare exchange site that provided Social Security information to the wrong user. Although no identity theft issues have been reported, this is still a very serious breach and it casts a negative light on the state.
Steps for Preventing a Breach
Whether you own a small or large business, it is imperative for you to implement data security programs to prevent a breach. Fortunately, you can easily turn to a professional company such as MSA Security to help you analyze your current risk level and restructure all necessary physical and online operational aspects to keep your data secure.
Keep in mind that preventing a data breach involves more than simply having the right encryption software in place. After all, a breach could be committed by one of your employees. Therefore, having a security firm in place is always a good idea because this will make it easier for you to identify any unusual behavioral patterns such as entering and exiting the building multiple times in a single day.
Additional Tips for Data Security
You should definitely keep your company's most sensitive information in a secure environment that can only be accessed by high-level employees because your profit margin and reputation rely so heavily on keeping all of your critical data safe. Some companies and government agencies even implement security screening of each personnel who enters and exits the area where this data is stored.
Additionally, it is important to transmit information via secured websites, and you should always keep your entire computer network up-to-date with the latest antivirus and malware software. It is also a good idea to limit each employee's options for accessing information when they are not in the office.
Ultimately, the level of attention that you pay to your company's data security will have a major impact on your ability to build a lasting business. Therefore, you should strongly consider consulting with a security firm to ensure that you are utilizing the best possible techniques.
Lisa Coleman shares some important information about why every step needs to be taken as a business owner to keep data safe, and shares tips on breach prevention.
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