Modern business environments are completely different from what was standard just 20 years ago. We live in the information age. Everywhere you turn, you’ll find technology being deeply integrated with even the most basic activities.
Running a business is no longer about delivering quality services or products, it’s also about protecting your data and enforcing confidentiality. Let’s dig deeper into this subject and discuss why this aspect of doing business is so important.
Understanding Modern Work Environments
Modern job markets are increasingly dynamic. The institution of loyalty to an employer or a company is slowly fading out of existence. Today, more and more people are spending an average of 4 years with a company before they move on. Truth be told, this system works great for employees as they can constantly improve their skills, knowledge, and wages.
However, such a flow of workforce can be an issue for companies that operate in highly competitive environments. Depending on the industry you’re in, having employees jump ship after a few years can cause you to lose your competitive edge.
This is especially true if said employees were tasked with working on sensitive projects. The risk of losing sensitive data with your employees is exactly why data protection and confidentiality are a must in almost any workplace.
Corporate Espionage And Security Breaches
Running a business these days requires a certain level of networking within the organization, as well as a constant presence online. Building a computer network within the organization is a great way to streamline the work that’s being done and increase efficiency. However, the IT experts from onestopit.com warn that such networks can often become vulnerabilities. This is especially true if there is no active protection built into the network.
Depending on the size of your organization and how valuable your data is, you could find yourself on the receiving end of malicious attacks. Sometimes these attacks are a result of corporate espionage, but most of the time they come from opportunistic 3rd parties.
Prevention Is The Best Defense
Protecting data comes down to managing access and cultivating a healthy cybersecurity culture within your organization. As it turns out, most cyberattacks aren’t a result of a cinematic hacking sequence complete with matrix letters and corny ‘90s techno music.
In fact, most cyberattacks come in the form of phishing. The idea behind phishing is simple. Instead of trying to crack passwords protected systems, the attacker focuses on the weakest link – the employee.
Phishing attacks often have a form of an email that looks like it’s coming from a trusted source. These emails will have a link or an attachment that gives the attacker access to the system once opened at the target destination. In 2016, the entirety of the Ukrainian power grid was disabled using a strategically placed phishing email.
The best way to protect your organization from such attacks is to educate your employees and teach them to never open links in emails unless they are 100% sure the links are safe.
Also, they should never insert unknown USB drives into company computers that are linked to the internal network. This type of advice might seem redundant to a computer-literate person, but most people aren’t familiar with computers that well.
Implementing Data Protection
At this point, you’re probably wondering when should you start implementing data protection and confidentiality in your organization? The answer is right now. Whether you’re running a small organization or a medium-sized one, you should have some sort of data protection in place that will keep your sensitive information safe.
The best way to do this is to scale the active protection along with your organizational needs. If your business is small, start with simple and inexpensive data protection solutions. As your business grows, you’ll need to scale your data protection system to meet the needs of your growing network.
As far as confidentiality goes, it’s something you should implement immediately if you’re working with proprietary technologies, services, or products. Any employee that is made privy to this sensitive information should be screened and subjected to a confidentiality agreement of some sort. Whether it will be an NDA or something else will largely depend on your industry and the standard practices used in your niche.
Data protection and confidentiality can be an overwhelming part of doing business. In case you’re feeling overwhelmed by it, don’t hesitate to seek professional help. Data security is not something you want to take chances on, especially if your data is essential to the survival of your business.
