The Security Risks of Digitization
January 27, 2017
The business advantages of a digitization process, including the corporate documents, are fairly well known. From increased productivity to more office space, many of the benefits are bottom-line related.
But it’s not like you can just start a digitization program thinking that all you’ll get is benefits. Corporate security is always at risk regardless of what you do in business. And there are solutions for most threats. Non-disclosure Agreements help to protect your IP; locks help protect your premises and all of them help to protect your business’ sensitive information.
But digitization is a relatively new process for many companies. While they may have scanned some documents before, the practice of doing business online, on the cloud, is new. And, as with anything new, we are not always aware of all the security concerns and risks involved.
The following are among the most common sources of security threats to the digital workplace.
1. Mobile Devices
Considering just about everyone of your employees has at least one, if not two mobile devices, including business and personal devices, with them at work, companies ae notoriously lax in securing them. Mobile devices are easy to steal, and they can be attacked from nearby devices, or even through text messages.
2. Human Error
Many high-profile information breaches were the result of human error, including too-simple passwords, lost devices and unattended computers. Make sure all your systems, online and off, are protected with graduated access according to position, and that all employees are aware of the potential consequences of their actions.
3. Insider Fraud
The easiest way to get past all your digital security features is to start from behind them. Without adequate internal controls, any employees can have access to information that is far beyond what their roles require.
4. IoT
Having everything connected to the web, from your alarm systems to thermostat, is incredibly convenient, but remember: always connected = always vulnerable. Anything you can access online or on a mobile device can be accessed by anyone, whether they have the authority or not.
If there is one driving business guideline that should be adopted by any company planning a program of digitization, it is that security of the scanned information should be the highest priority.
