Business data protection: use advanced technology to protect your privacy

Undoubtedly, cutting-edge technology has a profound impact on everyday business operations. The main benefits associated with the implementation of the right technology advancements refer to decreased human error and increased productivity, fast communication and effective collaboration, reduced costs, reliable storage and information protection. Choosing company technology represents a daunting process that includes many questions and answers. Analyzing current IT systems and operations, evaluating the staff productivity, identifying bottlenecks and strengths, automating certain tasks to enhance overall business efficiency becomes fundamental in order to determine the specific business needs that adopted technology has to meet. It becomes more and more obvious that thriving in the corporate field requires businesses to embrace information technology (IT). However, there are negative opinions regarding the impact of technology on business as well, particularly in what concerns security and protection. The biggest risks or threats faced by organizations involve disgruntled or uninformed employees, unpatched and mobile devices, cloud applications and the lack of security policies.

Steps to follow for business data protection

Indeed, information technology facilitates business processes, allows financial savings, eliminates waste and streamlines communication, but it also enables cybercriminals to threaten data security. The irony is that business owners can only fight back by implementing even more advanced technology in a smart way. Protecting personal and business privacy is more than possible if business owners ensure employee training regarding information security in order to raise awareness about the company’s exposure to cyber threats, if they understand the main concerns related to BYOD, if they monitor the access of low-level employees, if they focus more on cybersecurity, if they create a solid cybersecurity policy for the company and if they develop a risk management strategy. Technology seems like a double-edged sword in this case; it can become the best ally or the most powerful enemy. However, business owners do have to be aware that personal or business data is not threatened only in the online or digital environment. For this reason, staying up to date with the latest technological innovations is vital for ensuring document and brand protection.

Business owners need to monitor and train employees

Even the most common items that every individual within the company has, like ID cards, driving licenses and passports contain extremely sensitive information so using adhesive, ink and optical technology, such as Passport Security Labels, to protect that information is more than necessary. Since even the person with the most unimportant position in the company can become a major threat for the business, supervising all employees and maybe even testing their loyalty might prove to be useful. In fact, the respective employee may not even be aware that someone else is taking advantage of his access to business data to steal it. Small habits like allowing the staff to come with personal laptops at the office and use them for work can be dangerous for the company’s privacy. The main idea is that the human factor plays a big role in this whole situation focusing on business data protection. More specifically, this means that technology itself is not harmful, but the way people, whether inside or outside the company, use it can be very damaging. Contrary to popular belief, not just companies in the tech and finance sectors have to deal with espionage, sabotage and hacks.

Counterfeiting has become a main concern in the corporate environment

Apart from these threats, brands should also fear counterfeiting because it has become a prominent concern in the corporate environment in the past years and online channels like social media platforms helped to the rise of the unauthorized replicas or fakes. Taking into account modern technology, copycats manage to create sophisticated counterfeits that can fool almost anyone. Even more, they do not sell them on a street corner because this would make customers realize the scam. Instead, they use online websites or auction sites that seem to be authentic brands. However, the reality is that a fake remains a fake and there are subtle differences between them and the original products; you just have to know where to look. Obviously, the manufacturing process is different because the real companies use different elements like UK 3M Tape Converters to create a product of superior quality while the fake brands only focus on the appearance and do not care about the quality at all because their only purpose is to make money and they somehow managed to increase their profits over the years.

Business owners should develop a good data protection strategy

Undoubtedly, business owners need to be more vigilant and work towards not just keeping IT systems secure but also ensuring overall business data protection. Yes, conducting background checks, using strong passwords, designing safe systems, providing staff training, thinking twice before clicking, keeping software up-to-date, not including sensitive data into the cloud and handling data, in general, cautiously, is very important. In fact, business owners even have the right to stay paranoid considering all the threats lurking in the dark. Nevertheless, they should also understand the negative impact that a cyber attack or data theft could have on the company, know exactly what and how to protect, limit access, control vendors, know privacy policies and prepare for the worst. Taking all these safety measures reduces significantly the possibility to become the victim of hacks, sabotage or espionage, but the bad things in life happened when you least expect it so having a backup plan or preparing to face such risks becomes necessary. Getting practice and coverage but also expecting new threats and working towards finding effective solutions is crucial.

Privacy should become a priority for all companies, regardless of the sector, because privacy matters not only for the brand but also for customers and the company’s growth. A business cannot have a bright future without privacy and a well-established data protection strategy. Privacy does not only include the company itself, but also customers who share or give their personal information because they trust the quality services provided by the respective company. Therefore, the business owner is responsible for customer data protection as well.

Cynthia Madison is a young blogger and economics and marketing graduate. She writes about home, lifestyle and family topics and is a senior contributor to popular niche publications.