Most of us in the modern business world conduct a surprising amount of business through a digital platform. However, every evolution of business comes with a new set of challenges that we must overcome to be successful. In the case of an increasingly digital world, one of the biggest challenges facing enterprises today is a data breach. Every company will need to share sensitive or confidential documents with employees or outside organizations at some point.
However, the key is to focus on the security of this information, including upcoming projects, research and development, finances, customer data, and more. The attention to data security becomes even more critical when you’re handling information belonging to third parties, whether that’s clients, employees, or business partners. If your organization is responsible for leaking someone else’s data, you could be held liable and face potential lawsuits. Therefore, protecting your business from data breaches is crucial. Today, we’ll examine five tips that can help you protect your company from a data breach.
1. Ensure your company controls permissions for file sharing.
When you’re striving for secure file sharing, your organization needs control over who has permission to access a document. However, this access isn’t limited to viewing the sensitive document in question. Your business should control who can view, copy and paste, edit, and download all sensitive files in your company. Furthermore, the ability to revoke access to a document is a must-have for any business. Without permissions control, your organization is at risk of a data breach. When your administrators determine who has permission to sensitive information, you can prevent data leaks and narrow the possibilities down should a breach occur.
2. Activity tracking allows your organization to better secure sensitive documents.
Incorporating an activity tracking software into your secure file management system will show your administrators who accessed any particular documents, when the access occurred, and what changes were made to said documents. This way, not only are would-be data thieves deterred from stealing data from your company but any data leaks can also be traced to the source more efficiently. Activity tracking and monitoring are crucial to any business dealing with sensitive information.
3. Digital watermarks can protect your company from a data breach.
Digital watermarks are a somewhat newer technology used to track users who have accessed sensitive documents in your organization. If you enable a watermark on viewed or downloaded documents, you’ll see the time, date, user’s email address, and IP address. As a result, this technology goes hand-in-hand with activity tracking to further track down data leaks. In addition, they can prevent users from leaking their data when attempting to steal data from your organization.
4. Data encryption is becoming an industry standard for protecting data.
If your data isn’t encrypted when you’re sharing it with other members of your organization or outside sources, then you’re at risk of a data breach. When your files are encrypted, the file’s contents are scrambled so that only your authorized software can open the file and access its contents. For example, if you’ve granted access to a user to view a document through a web browser and attempt to download it, the computer will not understand how to access the scrambled data within the file. Therefore, the download fails, and your data is safe. Subsequently, encryption is an essential part of data security.
5. Find a provider that can combine all of these features.
The best solution to protecting your data from a breach is to find a service provider that can offer all of these solutions in one package, such as Caplinked’s virtual data room (VDR). Virtual data rooms provide secure storage for your sensitive documents and limit access to only those you’ve authorized. All of the features we’ve covered can be a part of your virtual data room, ensuring that your files are safe and secure. Due to their enterprise-level security, these VDRs are frequently used for business transactions, from mergers and acquisitions to investments to strategic partnerships.
Secure your data and avoid breaches.
When you choose a VDR through a company like Caplinked, you can rest assured that your company’s, clients’, and partners’ data is safe and secure.