The loss or leakage of sensitive information can be serious problems for small businesses. Kaspersky, the cybersecurity and digital privacy company, explains how to keep confidential data safe.
Every business, big or small, has sensitive data that needs protection. For example, even a small retail company has documents containing employees’ personal information that must remain legally confidential. It is not easy to replace lost bank documents, etc. Supplier and contractor contracts may contain trade secrets.
To prevent loss or improper disclosure of important data, Kaspersky experts share seven tips:
1-Enable full disk encryption on all devices
On devices where confidential data is stored or transferred, i.e. on most devices, be sure to enable full disk encryption (FDE). Encryption protects data on the device if it gets into the wrong hands. The FDE tool in Windows is BitLocker. The macOS equivalent of this tool is FileVault. FDE is enabled by default on most iOS and Android phones. Do not disable this unless absolutely necessary.
2. Limit confidential data to stay only in the office
Another way important data gets into the wrong hands is by losing (or stealing) physical media, external hard drives, or flash drives. Ideally, this data should never be taken out of the office. If you need to transfer data to an external environment, you need to encrypt the data you are transferring in advance. For example, the Security solution for many small businesses supports encrypted data storage in crypto carrier format.
3. Do not transfer unencrypted data over the Internet
Sometimes you may need to send confidential data online, by email, or through a file sharing service. We strongly recommend avoiding this as much as possible, but if you have to send it, at least encrypt it in case someone else gets it. The easiest way to do this is to create a password-protected archive file. Almost all archive programs have this option. After encrypting the data, send the password to the recipient through a messaging app that supports end-to-end encryption, for example, if you send the information through a different channel, in addition to an email.
4. Delete sensitive data you don’t need
Even outdated information can cause problems, so get rid of it. At least delete the less sensitive information, and then empty the Recycle Bin so that the data can’t be restored with a simple click. For all other data that is unclear to what level of sensitivity it contains, use a file destruction program to prevent it from being restored.
5. Encrypt backups
Backups are vital, but they can also be a source of leaks. Therefore, before creating backups of hidden data, you should put them in a cryptocontainer.
6. Keep more than one copy
Store your data in several different locations isolated from each other. For example, you can keep one copy of a file on your computer and the other on an external drive or trusted cloud storage service. Again, we say; don’t forget to encrypt files in advance.
7. Secure archive and crypto carrier passwords
Losing the password for an archive file that contains important business data means losing that data. Store passwords in an application to create complex passwords and securely store passwords
