Document security has emerged as an important business concern no company should ignore. With all the sensitive data flowing through most modern organizations, there is much to protect. Businesses are responsible for information such as personally identifying information, payment details, and medical records, just to name a few. As such, they must take reasonable steps to preserve and protect both paper and digital documents.
Business documents are stored and accessed in many places, including email applications, hard drives, mobile devices, USBs, and the cloud. As a result, organizations face very real threats if they aren’t proactive about securing documents, such as:
These threats are serious and cannot be ignored. In addition to leaving a company financially vulnerable if data is lost or exposed, organizations also face any penalties associated with non-compliance of regulatory or industry requirements.
Statistically speaking, many businesses leave themselves vulnerable to exploits, especially small companies because they feel they are less of a target. Realistically, small businesses today are under more a threat than their larger counterparts. This is because cybercriminals and data thieves know small companies are less likely to invest in strong security.
According to a 2017 report, researchers found 75% of data breach victims were small businesses. While it can be costly to increase cybersecurity, consider the far higher costs of not securing important documents containing sensitive information:
Any of these events associated with information theft can be devastating to a business. It’s important to note that about 60 percent of small businesses are forced to shutter their doors after just one data breach. A big price to pay.
To better secure your documents, you want to be proactive. To start, establish best practices to handling sensitive documents—make it a part of your company’s culture. Here are some good practices to integrate into your organizational policy:
As a bonus, document security solutions are highly streamlined, which means businesses utilizing them enjoy better productivity and efficiency, helping them to scale back on costs.
If you’d like help protecting your documents and the sensitive information contained within them, contact us today to learn more about ways you can strengthen document security.