5 Ways to Protect Your Business from a Data Breach

Data breaches are a significant problem that can be faced by businesses today. When such an event occurs, a company can lose money and the trust of the customers that relied upon them to keep data safe.

Fortunately, there are relatively simple steps that businesses can take to ensure that they are not an easy target for criminals. These five means of protecting your business will give you a good chance of fending off potential data breaches before they happen.

1. Destroy Your Hard Drives Before Recycling

At some point, every business will need to dispose of their old computer systems that contain data storage. Even though you can delete data from a hard drive, sophisticated criminals can gain access to the old data.

To prevent that from happening, you should contact a professional service for data destruction to completely erase and destroy the hard drive. Your data will be completely unreachable following the hard drive shredding process.

2. Only Maintain the Information You Must Keep

A simple way to protect your business from a data breach is to limit the amount of information that is maintained on your computer systems. Your business should have protocols for the elimination of outdated, valuable information.

Businesses should also delete emails often, purge old files, and ensure that the data kept on computers is useful and pertinent to the company’s current work.

3. Update Your Security Systems Frequently

Many businesses keep using their computers over time without performing new updates that are available for the operating system. That leaves the computer open to data breaches because the security systems are no longer able to fully counter the latest threats.

Simply put, you must update your computer’s security software as often as possible or you risk allowing an emergent flaw to become a serious problem.

4. Keep Computer Terminals Secure

From big-box retail stores to office buildings, workers do not enjoy logging into their computers several times a day. As a result, computer terminals can get left open, allowing access by customers or other outsiders.

A quick look at an employee’s computer can lead to a major data breach. In the worst-case scenario, a flash drive could download vast amounts of important data. To counter this, companies should increase terminal security by:

• Setting up mandatory computer logins
• Enforcing frequent password changes
• Establishing time-outs on every terminal

These efforts will help to keep computer terminals as secure as possible.

5. Train Employees Appropriately

Employees must be trained in proper security protocols that pertain to their computers. All the measures to protect your business that we have mentioned should be a part of your regular employee training. When these things become second nature, the business will be safer.

Creating a secure business environment is crucial to protecting your company from a data breach. Increasing security is a multi-step process, but small efforts can yield significant results.

When you want to get rid of your older hard drives in South Dakota, contact us for a consultation or appointment. SEAM can clear data from your hard drives and securely destroy them to prevent the data from posing a threat to your business.