3 Ways to Improve Information Security in the Workplace

In the new digital world where everything is shared and connected, there is a growing concern about information security and integrity of the data you keep. This includes both company records and client files. Treating security breaches has become increasingly difficult, and thanks to recent advances in technology, all of your sensitive data could be uploaded to a malicious party at once in a matter of minutes.

While we know that there is no such thing as an unbreakable system, we can use some ground rules to improve data-security. This will make your data unavailable for malicious software and potential hackers. Here are a few steps you have to take in order to reduce the possibility for breaches.

Plan Ahead

In the world of digital information security, hindsight isn’t worth a lot. Make your security strategy in advance, selecting who will have access to which information and when, where that information will be stored and what will be the procedures to access it. If you know everything you need beforehand, there will be no loopholes that you will need to rush to fix afterwards.

Use Professional Help

There are plenty of companies dedicated to information security, and you should use their assistance in the planning process. These companies will help you formulate your protocols, manage your filing system and select which data can only be accessed with ID cards for instance.

Professionals in this field were often once on the other side themselves, and they will know all the IT security holes that companies miss and can help you prevent them in your information security policy.

Analog vs. Digital

No matter how complete a security suite is, there are thousands of hackers who are actively trying to break them. What hackers and malicious software can’t break is the lack of a physical connection with the sensitive data mainframe.

You can work with a company like IDSecurityOnline to make ID cards to limit access. You could have a separate locked room that only reliable personnel will be able to access and transfer very specific data from manually. Having this physical barrier will make your data un-hackable, as there is nothing to hack. There are hackers who are able to pass even the most sophisticated firewalls, but there are none who can pass a literal one.

In this case, even if you have a security breach, most of your most sensitive data will remain secure, and you will be able to patch your system and move on.

Destroy After Use

If you are working with sensitive data, you shouldn’t leave your hardware unattended, even after you have no use for it. If you can, try to destroy anything containing sensitive information.

Believe it or not, but there are people out there who will dig through your trash for your old hard drives. This is why every information security professional will advise you to rinse your hardware in acid before you discard it, and by hardware, we mean everything: hard drives, printers, VoIP phones, everything.

As you can see, reducing the chances for security all boils down to a few sets of procedures. But more importantly, it’s all about having a plan and doing the steps necessary to safeguard critical information from prying eyes.