In today’s connected world, there is so much personal data being passed around daily. It’s essential for everyone involved to feel at ease knowing their data is completely safe from getting into the wrong hands. There are so many risks including being involved in phishing scams and even having ransomware. This isn’t to mention the cloud-based vulnerabilities and others. Protecting data has never been as important as it is right now. Not only do you need to have the best office security from the Lock Boss but you also need to have good cybersecurity. That is only heightened by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Here are some of the top tips that you should be integrating into your plan to ensure you can keep your data as safe as possible.

 

1. Using The Right Encryption

 

Gone are the days when encryption was something you only needed for sensitive data. Nowadays, it’s important to have strong encryption on everything including any personal information. You want both at-rest data that is being stored on various physical servers and data that is in-transit that includes all of the information that is being transmitted to cloud serves and from these servers. One of the main tips that you should be looking for would be to check for an algorithm much-like Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) that has a minimum of 128-bit encryption. If you are looking to secure even more sensitive data, you want to look for something with 256-bit encryption. Stick to only using HTTPS connections when you are looking to protect yourself and your data.

 

2. Prioritizing Staff Training

 

One of the most important things that you should be doing is training your staff, like IBM TRIRIGA Training. Your biggest vulnerability will come from the ignorance of your staff. You are only as strong as your weakest link. Therefore, you want to ensure all of your employees know what to do in any given situation. You want them to understand how to practice the right security measures. This includes having discretion in emails, not including personal details, and ensuring that your staff doesn’t have access to many systems that have pertinent personal data. You may wish to consider an Exclusive Leads Agency.

 

3. Reducing Data Use

 

You should only be using personal information that is completely necessary. This is true both in terms of data capture and data consumption. While getting profiled with marketing can be unavoidable in some cases, you want to utilize the right data protection tips to ensure you aren’t giving too much. Some fields of data capture aren’t even needed. Therefore, you only want to request things and information from customers that you need. For instance, if you only need someone to dictate they are over 18, only have a button that allows them to choose that. You don’t need to ask them what exact age they are and what college they attended.

 

4. Store Data For Limited Time

 

You don’t need to keep their information forever. You only want to hold onto personal information for the period in which you need it. A lot of personal information will evolve as time goes on. Because of this, you don’t want to necessary keep and hold all of the information you have on customers. Limit the amount of time you are holding onto the data and ask customers to give you updates on their data if you need it. Always give them as many details regarding how their data is being used. By boosting the level of trust your customers have in their data protection, the better the chances you will retain them as your customers.

 

5. Crisis Resilience

 

Nobody wants to even think about a crisis, there is a lot to consider. There is so much that can happen to a business from a fire to a flood. Because of this, you need to factor in how you would deal with one. You need to ensure that you have the protections in place to avoid having the data you are storing being lost in these circumstances. Under the Data Protection Act, you need to have the right kind of safeguards in place to properly guard against this. One of the best ways to do so is by having documents stored on a cloud server with ample security which will allow you to restore the data seamlessly.

6. Management Of Passwords

 

You need to ensure that you have the right kind of password protection in place. Without strong passwords, you might as well keep your doors completely open for anyone to come in and steal whatever they want. Your password is the gatekeeper. Thus, you should integrate effective password policies and online security across your business. You want to ensure that everyone is regularly changing their passwords and guard against having your staff fall back on using easy-to-remember passwords based on easily identifiable information. Always audit password changes to figure out how long they’ve been used which can keep you from allowing vulnerabilities to exist from password breaches.