Business information is critical, which demands the security of every data. Cybersecurity is a threat that targets business data. Your internal digital business documents may be hacked or stolen if not well secured. Moreover, these documents can be compromised through malware such as ransomware which can destroy your business data.
Small businesses are usually the target of cybercriminals because their security measures are not updated to match current cyber threats. However, some large businesses have been attacked by cybercriminals successfully in the recent past. As a result, they’re not secure if they don’t invest heavily in cybersecurity. In many nations across the world, protecting customers’ private information is mandatory rather than an option. Losing such information to cybercriminals may come with hefty fines, which may even lead to business closure.
If you’re a business owner, you should be aware of how you can keep your internal documents secure. Here are some tips for you:
1. Use Electronic Signatures
Gone are the days when you needed to wait for your boss to sign a document that urgently needed action after they traveled. Moreover, with remote working and remote onboarding due to social distancing, you don’t need to send hardcopy contracts to your new hires to sign, then they send the documents back to you. On the contrary, you can electronically sign your documents from wherever you are with the latest technology.
What you need is software that provides an e-signature service. Such software enables you to sign your documents and send them to other parties that need to append their signatures. In addition, you can track and receive a feedback email once each person has signed the document. With this software, you can comfortably write your signature using the computer mouse or a stylus pen.
2. Create Digital Copies
Business information is always at risk of being lost, stolen, or corrupted by viruses and other malware. Natural calamities like fire, earthquakes, or floods can destroy your business premises and all of your office devices, consequently leading to the loss of all your information. If you have no copies that you can use as a restore point, it can even cause the closure to your business operations, especially if it’s a significant loss.
You can create copies of your data by transferring the documents to other storage media, such as external hard disks or flash disks. The advantage of these storage media is that they are portable and can be used in different machines apart from your business computers. As a result, you can carry the data and continue working from anywhere. Plus, once you’ve digitized documents, it’s time to secure the paper trail, too. For example, many Californian businesses opt for document shredding in San Francisco to ensure no documents are left behind and that no one can access them.
3. Transfer Your Documents To The Cloud
Clouds are large servers located in several areas of the world. Its providers can give online storage space which can accommodate all your business documents. Their storage space is unlimited. Storing your documents on the cloud is secure because of the high level of internet security that cloud service providers employ. Furthermore, you can choose who should have access to your documents and permit them.
Moreover, cloud technology allows you to access your documents from anywhere using any gadget. In addition, you can collaborate working on cloud-stored documents if your workers are working remotely.
4. Secure Your Network
You can secure your network by employing two significant security measures. First, you should create a Virtual Private Network (VPN) limited to your employees only. Your internal employees should be assigned login credentials that give them access to the network. Additionally, you can make the passwords have an expiry date, maybe after a month. It becomes hard to hack the password when it’s regularly changed.
Secondly, you should implement a firewall. The importance of a firewall is that it ensures that no unauthorized traffic can access your network, such as hackers.
5. Secure Your Devices
It’s advisable to protect business computers, tablets, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephones, and smartphones with passwords. Good passwords should have a combination of lower case and uppercase letters and also special characters. Safe password practices recommend using no less than eight characters in your password. Please avoid using your name or obvious English names as your password as they easily guessed.
Finally, secure your business devices by using an antivirus. Regularly update your antivirus for optimum cybersecurity. Before downloading anything from the internet, scan the document to ensure that it’s safe for download. Avoid visiting sites that have been flagged as insecure by your antivirus, as you could be exposing your device to dangerous viruses.
Final Thoughts
The security of internal business documents can’t be overemphasized as it’s the backbone of all business operations. Business documents should be protected from loss, corruption by hackers, or interception while being sent across the internet. That’s why you should use current security protocols like the ones listed in this article to secure your internal business documents.
