Adopt These Workplace Practices to Avoid Data Risks in 2018
December 21, 2017
2017 was a year of still more massive corporate data breaches and hacks that put our private, personal information at risk. The latest news includes a data breach coverup by Uber. Here we have a few ways for you to avoid data risks in the new year.
On the plus side, the Firefox web browser announced that it will soon warn users if they’re visiting a site that has suffered a breach. That’s also bad news in a way because it reveals the extent of the security problem with valuable corporate and personal data.
While safeguarding online data is a major undertaking, there are other, smaller-scale company data breaches that, while not usually as widespread, can be just as devastating for everyone affected.
If you’d like to avoid data risks and minimize any of these sorts of breaches affecting your business in 2018, try adopting some or all of the following workplace practices.
1. Get Your Corporate Policies in Order
The end of the year is a good time to review your security policies to make sure they offer you the protection you expect.
2. Stop Recycling Whole Documents
Recycling paper documents is very important. But not while the data on them is still intact. You should shred documents to the point that the data on them is certifiable irretrievable.
3. Be Careful Where You Work
Whether you’re working in a common area at the office, or you’re in a coffee shop, the data on your screen is visible to everyone around you – and the coffee shop wi-fi is probably not secure.
4. Stop Making ‘Working Documents’
Whether you make a digital copy, or an extra photocopy or print out for your own purposes, every time data is duplicated, the risk of it being breached increases also.
5. Beware the Edward Snowden Principle
One study showed that up to 65% of digital fraudsters are employed by the company they attack. If something seems suspicious, check it out. The same study found that most online fraud was discovered through internal complaints, tip-offs and whistle-blowing programs.
If you’d like to learn more about protecting your sensitive corporate data, including certified document and digital media destruction, give us a call here at Papersavers before it’s too late.