Are These Work Habits Compromising Your Company’s Security?
You may be more susceptible to a data breach if you or your employees have any of these work habits.
A data breach can be your worst nightmare. Not only could it be disastrous for your company’s brand, it could lead to significant revenue losses and regulatory fines. While you may take digital data security seriously, have a look around the office. Data breaches go far beyond what’s stored in the cloud. If any of these work habits apply to you, it’s time to make a change.
Leaving Papers Out in the Open
Do you keep papers around your desk area? Do you often leave client information out in the open for wandering eyes to see? Following a clean desk policy can help your business reduce the risk of information theft, fraud, or a security breach caused by sensitive information being left unattended and visible in plain view. A clean desk policy ensures that all important documents, confidential letters, binders, and books are removed from a desk and locked away when the items are not in use or an employee leaves his/her workstation. It is one of the top strategies to reduce the risk of security breaches.
Printing Documents
How often have you gone to pick up your printout and found multiple documents in the printer tray or sitting around nearby? These documents can be viewed or carried off by anyone, creating a security risk. If your printer has the capability, activate pull or push printing to reduce unclaimed documents. Users can print to a secure network, authenticate themselves, and retrieve jobs when and where necessary.
Public Hotspots on the Go
If you use your work computer when away from the office, be sure to take caution when using public WiFi hotspots. Hackers may be able to access public networks and see any information you send over them, including bank account numbers, logins and passwords, and other confidential business information. If you’re using public WiFi to surf the Web, be sure to have your device “forget” the network to ensure your safety.
Old Hard Drives, Documents, and Devices: What Do You Do With Them?
No one ever thinks of garbage as valuable, but to an identity theft, your trash can become another person’s treasure. There is a paper trail of garbage that contains some of our most personal information. Don’t throw anything in the trash that is questionable, including old devices, hard drives and more. Consider using a locked bin for items that should be shredded and leave the trash receptacle out of it. Aside from keeping documents and files locked, the best way to boost your privacy is have a shred-all policy. A shred-all policy simplifies the process of document destruction; where there might be confusion over what to shred versus what to toss, shred-all is exactly that.
Shred everything, no matter what. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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