Avoid These Mistakes When Handling Your Data
Your data may be your most valuable business asset. While there are a number of threats that pose a risk to your information—including natural disasters, theft, and malfeasance—often the most avoidable risk is the one that stares back at you in the mirror each morning. Negligence and mishandling of corporate data results in a number of data breaches each year. Re-examining your own behavior may be the best form of prevention.
Failing to back up your data
Backing up your business data would seem like a no-brainer, but it’s a lot easier said than done. In reality it requires an investment of time, hardware and staff that most small businesses simply don’t have. Not backing up your data at all is simply not an option. A professional Evaulting service allows for the backup of your data online without putting pressure on your business resources. It’s important to look for an Evaulting provider that can offer the following:
- secure network encryption
- rapid data recovery deployment
- automatic, after hours, remote backup
Taking your data home
Even if you back up your business data to tape or disk, often it’s what happens after the backup that poses the most risk to your business. Taking a backup tape or hard drive home with you may seem like a prudent thing to do but in reality it is not an adequate data protection solution. The same things that could happen to business data storage left in the office could also occur within the confines of your home:
- theft by an intruder
- loss by fire, flood or earthquake
- degradation due to temperature and humidity
The only way to truly protect your electronic data is to store it offsite in a data protection facility. A dedicated vault protects data from theft and disaster and offers the following advantages:
- digital video surveillance
- 4-hour fire rating
- biometric hand recognition
- strictly monitored temperature and humidity controls
- barcode tracking technology
Ideally, whenever your data is backed up it should be rotated to your chosen offsite storage facility shortly thereafter.
Improperly disposing of sensitive business information
Despite constant media reports of confidential information being found in dumpsters, breaches of this sort continue to happen at an alarming rate. Paper shredding machines, used in attempt to properly dispose of documents, are both time-consuming and prone to malfunction. As a result, business records end up in the trash instead of being shredded.
Backup tapes and hard drives are victims of the same fate but for an entirely different reason. Many business owners fail to understand the importance of also destroying these data storage devices. And others have the false impression that deleting data will render it impossible to retrieve. In reality, backup media has become a prime target for theft due to the sheer amount of confidential information that can reside on one tape. Simply reformatting a hard drive still leaves traceable amounts of data that can be easily retrieved.
A professional shredding and destruction service with NAID AAA certification provides a reliable and expedient method for disposing of both hard copy and electronic information. The right provider can offer a range of services that alleviate both the need to handle disposal of your business information internally as well as the likelihood of a costly data breach.
Pacific Records Management provides records and information management solutions for businesses throughout Stockton, Sacramento, Modesto, Fresno, Napa and Solano Counties. For more information, please contact us by phone or fill in the form on this page.