When you’re a business owner, you have a lot to think about. Your new ideas, how you’re going to deal with any problems, and the employees that you’re bringing on board… all of these things are on your mind. But do you ever take some time out to think about your data, and how you can protect it? If you don’t do this, you could end up losing some of your important documentation, and you could even face legal action.
If you want to avoid all of this, however, then you can ensure that you’ve looked into these 5 things.
#1: Stay up-to-date with the law
Data protection is an extremely serious matter, and it’s one that brings with it a lot of laws. Firstly, you need to ensure that you’ve made your customers aware that you’re storing their data, and you also need to tell them how you’re going to be using it. You also need to look into the specific regulations for your country and area, so be sure to do this and follow them in all circumstances.
#2: Invest in good security
No matter what type of systems you have, you need to ensure that you have some good security to protect them. Get in touch with an IT consulting company if you’d prefer to outsource this (or you just don’t have the skills or the employees to do it alone) and look into the options for outside support. Your security will depend upon what you use your IT for, and what the threats that you’re most likely to face are.
#3: Use the Cloud
Storing all of your documentation on your business computers could lead to many problems, and one of them is that the data you have may be more at risk. However, you know that the Cloud services you’re using are protected with the most modern security systems that your business may not be able to provide, and you can also be sure that you can access your data in the event that your IT goes down, so look into this.
#4: Be wise with passwords
Whilst we all think that passwords don’t matter too much – people with 123456 as a password for just about everything, we’re talking to you – the truth is that you do need to be switched on here, especially as a business owner. You should be encouraging your team to change their passwords every few months, and you should also be sure to use upper and lowercase letters, and symbols. Easy, huh?
#5: Don’t click on suspicious links
OK, so we all know that suspicious links in emails are bad news. However, one of your team members may be a little more inclined to take risks here, so you need to ensure that you’ve had a discussion with your team about this. We know, it’s a pretty obvious one, but it’s really not worth the risk. If you’re in doubt, call up the person who supposedly sent the email, and double check that it’s legit.
So, if you want to keep your data safe as a business owner, then keep these 5 things in mind!
