57 million Uber customers, 60 million citizens of South Africa, the US federal government, and the British National Health Service have one thing in common — all of them have faced data breaches due to cyber attacks. This is not an ordinary data breach issue; it is a data breach targeting organizations of great credibility and expertise on the market.
It is obvious that data security is still a challenging affair both for businesses and public organizations alike. The need for secure data management systems is paramount, and thankfully, businesses can now manage their sensitive documents via virtual data rooms.
Dataroom software is not a few-months-old technology; it has been in the business arena for over a decade now. However, the past few years have seen tremendous growth in VDR consumption because of its uncrackable security.
Today’s discussion is about the importance of securing business data and how a secure dataroom can help you protect your sensitive documents.
What is a virtual dataroom?
A virtual data room is a secure, online data repository hosted on the cloud by certified virtual data room providers. Data room software is used for safely storing, sharing, and managing sensitive business documents.
Thousands and millions of professionals, businesses, enterprises, nonprofits, and government agencies use data room services for data management, virtual collaboration, and dealmaking. That’s because a secure data room not only provides data storage and management facility, but it also offers a wide range of collaboration tools to communicate with your workforce, investors, stakeholders, and external parties.
Due to the high-end security and project management features, businesses also use the data room software for online dealmaking. VDRs have been facilitating transactions like capital raising, real estate trades, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, fundraising, project bidding, etc.
You can visit website to learn more about virtual data room reviews, their role in M&As and the processes mentioned above.
The importance of securing your business data
Business data protection is important because of legal obligations and maintaining a strong competitive advantage. Here are the top four reasons why you need to protect your business data and online assets.
1. To maintain a competitive advantage
Modern-day businesses build a competitive advantage over their rivals based on skills, technology, and information. A marketing strategy driven by accurate market information is a competitive advantage. Any information about customers’ preferences, likes, dislikes, buying patterns, etc., can help businesses create unique products or services. Now imagine this information falling into the hands of your business rivals.
2. To prevent lawsuits
Customer data protection is not only useful for businesses; it is also a legal obligation in almost all countries. Businesses, especially law firms and financial institutions, possess sensitive customer data such as their email addresses, credit card numbers, bank account number, personal contact numbers, etc.
A business failing to protect such private data may have to pay settlements and penalties. For example, the online retail giant Amazon had to pay $877 million in settlements because of a GDPR violation. Similarly, Equifax paid $575 million penalties because of losing the financial and personal information of 150 million people.
3. To build trust
Just ask yourself a simple question — would you trust a firm or company that has a history of data breaches? A business that cannot protect its own data and customer information fails to win customers’ trust. When people don’t trust you, why would they buy from you or share their sensitive information? Data protection is necessary for trust building.
4. To protect your intangible and online assets
A product prototype, a chemical formula, a strategic plan, a training program, software, or anything that you use to run or grow your business is your asset. Again, if your competitors somehow get access to such material, you can easily lose your position in the market, resulting in setbacks in your business.
How can data room software help protect your business data?
Virtual data rooms give you 100% control over your business data. The good thing about the data room software is that it provides security against external and internal threats. Here are some useful data security features in the VDR software.
Two-step verification
The first step in data room security, the two-step verification process, ensures that only legitimate users can access the data room. In case a hacker gets the password, the login process will be incomplete until the hacker enters a one-time generated code which is only sent to the user’s mobile number or email address.
Remote purging
Although it is not a common feature, many top-quality virtual data rooms allow you to delete VDR documents from any device (even after being downloaded) connected with the data room. You can also remove any device whenever needed.
Document access control
As the administrator of your data room, you can limit any user from accessing, editing, altering, overwriting, sharing, downloading, deleting, or printing any document. You can also limit users’ access to specific files, folders, or groups.
Fence view mode
The fence view mode is a feature for document protection. When you activate these settings on a document, it cannot be downloaded, scanned, photographed, screenshot, edited, shared, printed, or altered.
Dynamic watermarks
You can add digital watermarks to your sensitive or confidential documents to claim your copyrights. Digital or dynamic watermarks can help trace the original owner of the file and all the changes made in the document.
Summing it up
Protecting your business and customer data is not only important for building trust and a competitive edge; it is a legal duty in many countries. With growing cases of data breaches, virtual data rooms can be the best possible option to minimize cyber attacks.
