High-profile companies all over the world are making headlines this year—not because of their unbeatable quality or growing sales but because of their poor data security.

As the Microsoft and Solar Winds hacks have proven, organizations of all sizes can become a victim to cybercrime. Data protection is critical to the success of your company. Trade secrets, financial documents, and employee records must all be safeguarded. 

If your security is breached, you risk losing both your credibility and your revenue. There are many steps you can take to avoid being yet another news story, and these four suggestions below will help you increase your data security this quarter.

Take note of insider threats

It’s easy to imagine threats coming from outside the company because they’re always depicted in the news and on television as the most serious and expensive. However, the truth is that your insiders are the ones who will affect you the most. 

Insider attacks are difficult to detect and avoid because they’re often caused by accident. It can be as easy as an employee clicking on an email attachment that appears to have originated from a trusted source, resulting in the spread of a malicious virus. These types of threats are the most common and expensive around the world.

Take a look at your office and at the desks of your staff. If you search long enough, you’ll almost certainly find a password or combination written down on a sticky note. Encourage staff members not to do this to ensure no data can be leaked due to human error.

Test your data security

If you believe that installing antivirus software on each machine or tablet will protect your organization from malicious activity, you are mistaken. Instead, you should hire a reputable company to take over your data security services. These companies will often expose vulnerabilities you weren’t aware of.

Delete unwanted or unneeded data

Many businesses, including those in healthcare, banking, government, and education, deal with confidential data as a necessary part of their operations. But how much of that data is still relevant?

Invest in an information disposal system that will prevent stale data from being forgotten and stolen later. Shred, erase, or make obsolete data unreadable. This will go a long way toward ensuring that your data security is operating at its best.

Protect data from all angles

Many organizations seem to focus their data security strategies on firewall technology. In fact, firewalls account for nearly 90% of security budgets. 

There are hundreds of ways to get around a firewall, often through clients, vendors, and employees. All of these entities have the potential to circumvent external cyber-security and misappropriate confidential information. As a result, you must ensure that your security activities are focused on the data itself rather than the perimeter.

Data security is imperative for all businesses, no matter what the size. Failure to do so could lose your business a lot of money and may result in closure. It could also damage your company’s reputation because potential clients may be afraid to share personal information with you and will refuse to work with you.

By analyzing your data security practices, you get one step closer to preventing a future disaster. You boost your company’s reputation for dependability, too. Don’t wait—fix your cybersecurity policies today with the steps we’ve given you.