If you’re a production company with expensive gear, you lock it up well and insure it. You keep your wallet or purse close to you while you’re in public. Unlike tangible items though, we can’t keep our identity, data, and personally identifiable information (PII) in our sight or locked up with a key. Cybersecurity requires a different approach. Businesses have extra responsibility because they have access to their workers’ personally identifiable information. Every time you engage an employee or a temporary worker, some level of personally identifiable information changes hands. Just think about how many social security numbers pass through your system. If those stay on your hard drives, you are putting your customers’ information at risk! This is one reason, among many, that it’s so important to have a high level of data security on a company level and to train staff in digital hygiene practices.
Current Threats
It seems every week, a major company, city, or hospital experiences an alarming security breach. Each error compromises something, whether it’s privacy (hacked laptop/phone cameras or Zoom calls, for example), data, or PII. Credit monitoring companies, phones, hospitals, and entire cities have been compromised or even taken hostage. The government has identified the cyberworld as its own domain (after land, air, water, and space). As such, it requires businesses and individuals to have a strategy and implement measures to keep countries, businesses, and people safe.
Businesses and consumers increasingly rely on apps and software to get their everyday work done. Customers, employees, and sometimes patients trust companies with their information. This comes with a responsibility to handle that information well.
So What’s a Company to do?
It’s kind of scary, sure, but there are solutions. While some require third-party software, many of them are basic.
- Password Management: There are tools that offer super secure ways to make sure your company passwords are accessible only to whom you want them to be. If you’ve ever tried to access a company account after the person who managed it is no longer with the company, you see the value here. Aside from the convenience, it’s a way to keep information super secure.
- Make Your Policies And Procedures Airtight: Prevention is always ideal. Train employees on good security etiquette. For most organizations, human error is by far the most likely source of mistakes that lead to breaches.
- Check Your Insurance Coverage: Should you experience a breach, having solid insurance coverage in place can make it a lot less painful by covering the financial loss. Talk to your insurance provider about your current coverage and where there might be gaps.
- Conduct Penetration Tests: Have third parties perform monthly security checks and an annual penetration test to ensure that anyone that tries to come after you will have a tough go of it.
- Encrypt Customer Information: Encrypt all information at multiple levels. Encryption scrambles data so that it’s unreadable without the encryption key.
Conclusion
Any investment in your security is a wise investment indeed.
