As we delve deeper into the digital age, it’s becoming all but impossible to run any type of business without collecting personal data. Data collection has become an integral tool for businesses operating in just about every niche and can be used for various purposes. From gaining a better understanding of your customers, who they are, and what their buying behaviours are, to generating marketing strategies, recording financial information, and gathering data to get better insight into the performance of your business, modern business owners are collecting data to better their businesses in a variety of different ways.
As a business owner, gathering all of this data is essential if you want to gain a competitive edge over the competition and provide the best possible service to your clients. However, gathering this data is only half of the equation. Once you have gathered all of this important information, you need to ensure that you have the right systems and safeguards like a VPN app, firewall, and other cybersecurity measures in place to keep this sensitive information well-protected.
Business owners have a responsibility to their clients to keep their personal data safe. In essence, it’s in the modern business owner’s own best interest to secure any data related to their business, its clients, and their daily business operations.
Let’s look at just a few things you can do to keep your company and client data secure as a business owner in the modern age.
Utilise Encryption
Using encryption technologies is essential to keeping your data protected in this era of digital transformation. Encryption will ensure that your important data stays hidden from malevolent third parties who may be hoping to infiltrate your organisation’s network.
For best results, you need to ensure that your office network is completely encrypted, as this is where almost all of your important data will be stored and transmitted. Once your network and all office devices are encrypted, you should set up a VPN (a virtual private network) for all of the devices that are used daily in your company.
With the addition of a VPN app for your devices, you can ensure that your business data stays encrypted, even if you’re working away from your office network. For example, one of your team might use their device when they are on a public network that is not encrypted, putting the data stored on that device at risk. However, with a VPN for all of your business devices, you can ensure everything stays a little bit safer regardless of where in the world you may be working from.
Strong Passwords
No matter what type of systems or devices you and your team are using, it’s vital that you have strong passwords to keep everything protected. Strong passwords are key to maintaining a strong cybersecurity strategy, so make sure that you choose passwords that are difficult to guess. Long, complex passwords that aren’t dictionary words are always the best choice.
Instead of using birthdays, company names, employee names, and other obvious options, you should string together random letters, numbers, and special characters to create passwords that will be impossible to crack. If you feel memorising these passwords may prove to be too difficult, then we’re here to tell you that you don’t actually have to rely on memory alone. Simply use a password manager program to keep track of all your passwords with ease. Password managers can help keep your sensitive account passwords protected using encryption technologies, allowing only you and other authorised users to access account information when they require it.
Security Awareness
Ensuring that your staff are fully aware of the most common security threats online is vital to your company’s cybersecurity efforts. Putting systems and safeguards in place to protect your data is certainly important, however, your team also needs to be able to identify different threats and know exactly how to deal with them when they arise.
One of the main issues facing companies nowadays is phishing attacks. These scams are designed to get staff members to unknowingly share important business data and information to hackers and cybercriminals via email and social media channels. Providing your team with cybersecurity training so they are aware of these threats and can identify them with ease is very important. If your team is not up-to-date on the latest scams and tactics being used, they are much more likely to give away important information without knowing.
Your cybersecurity training can also take on many different forms. Hold a meeting virtually or in person, host a training day, or hire a security specialist to come in and speak with your team about best practices to follow in order to keep your company and client data safe. Knowledge is power and the more your staff know about the threats that are in front of them, the better they can deal with these issues when they may appear.
Put The Right Systems In Place To Keep Your Business Data Protected
Keeping your business data protected is a crucial and often overlooked responsibility that all modern business owners have today. Following the tips outlined above, you can ensure that you and your team are in a position to keep your company and client data protected and recognise potential cyber threats moving forward.
With the right approach, you can ensure that your business has every chance of evading damaging attacks from cybercriminals, allowing you to keep operating smoothly across the foreseeable future.
