In the modern age, data has become as valuable as gold; at least to businesses. Even for small organizations, loss of data or data theft are pressing concerns. Whether it’s emails, customer information, invoices or any other data, your business might handle. Any loss of information can be a hit to your business.
The cause of lost data can come in many forms. Accidental deletion, down to user error, is very common. In a lot of modern data systems, hardware failure can result in information on cloud drives becoming garbled and corrupted. Outsider attacks are surprisingly common as well, and data theft is just as bad as data loss for a business.
This post will look into some of the different types of data businesses handle, and how best to secure them. These aren’t necessarily the best budget options. Instead, they’ve been chosen based on the level of protection they offer.
- Internal Data and Emails
Your business’ files, emails, calendars, accounting, employee details, and any other data, need protection. Most small organizations have this data spread across a host of services. This isn’t a bad thing; it means that data is still protected. But, it could be better.
Services like Microsoft’s Office 365 and Google Business Services offer to centralize all of your business’ data. They will handle anything from word processing to email accounts and active directory setups. If you already have email servers or an active directory setup in place, you can hybridize them. This means that you’re not only backing up files on your own servers, but also on secure servers elsewhere.
Regarding protection, most organizations offering these services claim 99.9% uptime. And even promise compensation for data loss and downtime. All of these tools can be set up by anyone. You might need the help of a few guides or the support systems in place, but they’re designed for beginners to be able to use.
- Customer Information
Customer information such as addresses and payment details have to be secure. If you lose this information, you risk not only a drop in consumer confidence but also legal issues.This is for a good reason, though. In the past, data stolen from websites has been used to commit fraud and even for theft.
If you take payments of any sort, you need a payment gateway. Services like Stripe and Ecwid offer secure payment handling that you can easily integrate with your site. They handle the payment data for you, and you only have to deal with a reference ID.
For handling customer account and address information, you need encryption. First, you’ll need to buy or generate an SSL certificate and connect it to your site. Next, you’ll need to update some code. Any form on your site that connects to a database is at risk and will need to be secured.
- Social Media Posts
If you regularly use social media, you probably spend a lot of time preparing posts. And, unfortunately, all of that work can be wasted in an instant. Passwords get leaked surprisingly often, and most people use the same set of passwords for every site. So it can be just a matter of time until someone compromises your account. Use different passwords, or a service like LastPass to generate passwords for you.
You can also take an extra step, and backup your posts. If you’ve spent hours making statuses and updates, it would be foolish to lose them. Using a service like Frostbox to backup your social media is a must if you want to preserve your presence.
- Big Data
Big data consists of large datasets that need to be analyzed for patterns or trends. Data like this is used in all sorts of business’; it’s used to see how well products are doing, to pickup buyer trends and a lot more. There’s a chance that if you sell products, you’ll need someone to handle this data for you.
A lot of companies outsource this data to countries where labor is cheaper, and they’ll have humans do the analysis. But computers are more secure and will often complete the task faster. It’s better to use a secure organization like Allerin, with insurance for data loss and backup facilities.
- Training
A lot of data loss is caused by human error. But if your train your staff well, there’s no excuse. You can find loads of training centers that deal with popular software, as well as online resources like Lynda, to help you out.
This information should put you in good stead to start protecting your data properly. It’s a good idea to meet with a consultant if you plan to make changes like these. They can help you find the exact services you need.
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