What's more, only 28 per cent take regular action to categorise their data and understand its value. So what data is there that every business possesses and will therefore need to protect?
Here are three key types that you should definitely encrypt. HR data Unless you're a sole trader, every company has employees, and this comes with a large amount of sensitive data that must be protected. This includes personal and financial details, as well as contracts, time sheets, sick notes and more.
This information could be hugely useful to hackers, so it must be protected from them and other unauthorised persons whenever it leaves your company - for example if an employee contract is being sent to an external consultant. But it's also important to keep this data safe from prying eyes internally.
This information is of no concern to anybody except for a few select people, so files such as wage slips must be protected whenever they are sent. In some companies wage slips, time sheets and sick notes are also being transferred to and from applications such as HR Information Systems.
These transfers should not be forgotten when encrypting this data. Information on customers, details of contracts with suppliers, and documentation related to offers and tenders are just some of the commercial data types that every business will possess in one form or another. Having the information exposed could greatly compromise a company, so it must be encrypted whenever it is shared, and also when sent to and from internal systems.
CRM tools, for example, often send automated updates and progress reports via email that are likely to include this information, so encryption tools must not overlook these applications. On a smaller scale, consider the data your employees access each day on your customers.
Consider the plans for your new product and an upcoming marketing blitz. Would your competitors benefit from knowing the names of your top 20 clients? Customer Information : Banking and healthcare industries are subject to regulations that govern the protection of consumer information.
Special data protection regulations apply to you, if this is your business. Even if your company operates outside those industries, you still need to take this seriously, as companies like Target and Home Depot found out.
Make protecting customer data a top priority because your reputation depends on it. Financial Reports : Most companies keep these close to the vest. Make sure you have consolidated a location and then encrypt it. Limit access to this location to only those who need it. Product Release Documents : How many people at your company are walking around with an Excel document on their laptops that contains your product release schedule for the next 24 months?
Thieves target business travelers and their laptops for the information they carry as much as for the hardware itself. Research and Development Data : This is a tough one because companies often distribute this data around the company. Not every company invests heavily in this area, but if you do, protect it using encryption.
Each company produces its own trove of valuable information. You may need to consider encrypting all email and legal documentation. Microsoft IT later rolled out the requirement to the entire company. Until we reach a time when every company possesses the tools to encrypt all data, each of us must make important decisions on what to encrypt and what not to.
If you are having a difficult time deciding if you should encrypt your data, ask yourself, if the data were on paper, would you shred it before tossing it? Or, if you accidentally leaked the data on the Internet tomorrow, would it cause harm to your employees or customers? In many cases, these encryption functionalities are also met with control capabilities for devices, email, and data.
Companies and organizations face the challenge of protecting data and preventing data loss as employees use external devices, removable media, and web applications more often as a part of their daily business procedures.
As a result, the best data loss prevention solutions prevent data theft and the introduction of malware from removable and external devices as well as web and cloud applications. In order to do so, they must also ensure that devices and applications are used properly and that data is secured by auto-encryption even after it leaves the organization. As we mentioned, email control and encryption is another critical component of a data loss prevention solution.
Secure, encrypted email is the only answer for regulatory compliance, a remote workforce, BYOD, and project outsourcing. Premier data loss prevention solutions allow your employees to continue to work and collaborate through email while the software and tools proactively tag, classify, and encrypt sensitive data in emails and attachments. The best data loss prevention solutions automatically warn, block, and encrypt sensitive information based on message content and context, such as user, data class, and recipient.
While data encryption may seem like a daunting, complicated process, data loss prevention software handles it reliably every day. Data encryption does not have to be something your organization tries to solve on its own.
Choose a top data loss prevention software that offers data encryption with device, email, and application control and rest assured that your data is safe. View the discussion thread.
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