5 Best Practices to Protect Your Business Data

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a small thriving startup or a large corporation; in this modern age, data protection should always be a part of your business strategy. Today, data and web threat incidents are becoming more common and can cause catastrophic damage to any business. This is true in particular for small business, but may disrupt your company’s daily operations irrespective of size.

Fortunately, there are several security best practices to help protect your business data. In this article, we’re sharing with you five practical steps to help your business keep its data safe and secure.

1. Consider Outsourcing Cybersecurity Specialists

You may be a small business without the budget to hire and maintain a full in-house IT department. There is also the chance you work for a large corporation that requires extra support for your IT team to keep up with the latest security issues. No matter your situation, outsourcing cybersecurity resources can be beneficial. 

As businesses continue to battle the increasing cyber-attacks and data security breaches, a dedicated cybersecurity service like Fusion Computing, one of the best firms for cybersecurity Toronto has to offer. They will be able to provide you nonstop coverage, security reliability, business continuity, and better access to top-notch security tools and talent, all at a lower cost. Fusion Computing is a great partner in keeping your business data safe and secure.

2. Establish A Data Security Policy

Businesses should write a detailed and comprehensive formal IT security strategy. Gone are the days of having a vague idea of security policies and procedures. This security policy shouldn’t only lay out how to protect your business data and its resources. It also needs to include what to do when things go wrong. 

Adding an incident-response strategy can help guide you in case a breach occurs. This will reduce the chance of making rash decisions that can worsen things. 

That said, after you’ve written a comprehensive security policy, don’t forget to update it every now and then. With cyber threats and attacks evolving every day, it only makes sense to keep your cybersecurity policies updated.

3. Encrypt Everything

Another way you can deploy data protection practices which will keep you business data safe is by encrypting everything. A hacker may slip past your firewall, or a phishing scammer may trick one of your employees into clicking a malicious link, however, they still need to be able to open and read your data to misuse or sell it. 

By encrypting your data, even if hackers get away with thousands of business data records or entries, it’s completely useless. Without the encryption key to open the database, hackers only gained thousands of completely, unreadable records that mean nothing.

This is why encrypting is your best possible defense against a data breach and keeping your business data secure. You want to simply encrypt everything all the time, whether the data is at rest or in transit. For remote communications, make sure to use end-to-end encryption apps to prevent packet reading in transit.

4. Using Strong Passwords

Passwords may be one of the most common security features, but they should be taken more seriously. Strong passwords can strengthen data protection efforts and lead to safer business data.

Most people tend to use the same passwords across numerous accounts and services or use easy-to-guess passwords such as a combination of your last name and birthdate. Doing so increases your risk of a data breach. 

Thus, you want to encourage your employees to come up with strong passwords for business software and account access to ensure the overall security of business data. 

A general rule of thumb is that a strong password should have eight or more characters with a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters, if possible. You can also invest in reliable password manager software to help employees securely store and manage their passwords, especially if they’re using numerous log-in credentials for several business software and tools.

5. Invest in Employee Training

Most business owners tend to focus on preventing outside attacks on their business data. However, did you know that about 88% of data security breaches occurred because of employee mistakes?

Human error, especially in your business’s data security, can cost you a lot of damage. Since your employees have a data security vulnerability, you want to invest in regular employee training. This helps your employees become more cybersecurity-savvy, staying updated on the latest data security risks, and preventing breaches on their end. 

A comprehensive employee cybersecurity training can also help teach your team what to look for and handle cybersecurity issues, increasing the overall data security of your business.

Deploying Data Protection Strategies to Keep You Business Data Safe – Summary

In this technologically advanced world, data security will always be essential to running a thriving business. If you don’t put in the effort or take the time to secure your business data, it can result in serious consequences down the road. 

Fortunately, as damaging as the increasing number of threats to your business’s data can be, they are easily avoidable as long as you follow these best practices, ensuring business continuity and success both now and in the future.