Managing your business data well is an essential practice when it comes to keeping your sensitive information secure. Unfortunately, many organizations make mistakes when managing company data, and these mistakes often lead to adverse consequences.
Contents1. Inadequate employee training2. Insufficient data security3. No contingency plan in place4. Use of outdated software5. Unregulated data access6. Improper ArchivingManaging company data properly can seem difficultLet's explore some of the most common mistakes to avoid.
One of the biggest IT contributors to poor data management is improper employee training. This will create a situation where workers in your organization could transfer key information in an insecure manner.
Or, they may provide unauthorized third parties with access to this information.
A common example might involve your employees using work-related passwords that are very easy to guess. Instead, it's in your best interest to implement an employee training program that establishes a comprehensive set of standards involving data management.
This will help ensure that you are able to minimize the risk of your employees becoming responsible for the compromise of sensitive information.
Depending on the industry you work in, you also need to train your employees regarding access to particular data. For example, companies that work with harmful chemicals must ensure that their employees have free access to safety data sheets.
You can visit this resource to learn more about how to improve MSDS management in your organization.
As you might expect, insufficient data security is a major problem when it comes to managing company data. However, this scenario is relatively ambiguous and could involve a handful of different factors.
For example, just because your key data is protected by a series of passwords doesn't mean it's inherently secure. There may be issues within your network itself that hackers could easily exploit to gain access to key information.
Unfortunately, it's not always possible for your internal IT team to recognize areas that need improvement. For this reason, it is strongly recommended to outsource to a professional in order to secure your business as much as possible.
Since new cyber threats are constantly emerging, it is essential that you have contingency plans in place. This is a set of actions or procedures that your business will follow in the event of a data breach.
It should come as no surprise that waiving this obligation can have a number of adverse consequences.
If you haven't already, prioritize formulating an action plan that your business can take in the event of a data breach. Even a short period of downtime could cost your organization tens of thousands of dollars in lost productivity, and small businesses may find it impossible to recover from a situation like this.
Using outdated software comes with a wide range of potential security issues. After all, there's a reason why developers constantly push updates to the software they've created.
Unfortunately, hackers are constantly looking for new ways to exploit vulnerabilities in existing software. If you're using an outdated version of an app, chances are you'll fall victim to a cyberattack.
Depending on the type of data compromised, you may encounter bigger issues than just managing downtime. It is not impossible for a hacker to leak the compromised information to your competitors, a situation that is particularly malignant if that data consists of trade secrets.
Hackers can also tell the media that your business has been hacked, which can damage your reputation with your customers. Simply put, using outdated software is a practice that is never recommended and should be avoided at all costs.
Whatever measures you put in place to protect your data, you will need to regulate the access your employees have to it. As you can imagine, there is no reason for a junior employee to have access to all of an executive's data.
This means that you need to implement certain precautions, such as multi-factor authentication. For those unfamiliar with this term, it refers to the use of multiple criteria to grant access to particular information.
In practice, this may involve entering a password and then entering a randomly generated code that is sent to your employee's email. When used correctly, such regulations can greatly reduce the risk of unauthorized access.
It is essential to back up sensitive information so that you can access it again in case your access is compromised. It's also a general good practice for establishing a history of your company's master data.
Interestingly, many companies tend to implement insufficient archiving when it comes to backing up their data.
You'll want to make sure your key data is kept in at least two separate locations in at least two different formats. In practice, this could mean keeping a hard drive in a locked room within your main business building while having data stored remotely on a cloud server.
However, the information above will help streamline this process. From there, you'll find that managing company data is much easier than expected, allowing you to properly protect sensitive information within your organization.
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