Easy-to-Use Data Protection Tips that Your Small Business Can Use Today
It’s becoming increasingly harder for businesses and individuals to protect their data. Whether hackers are getting smarter or individuals just lack the knowledge needed to protect their data, either way, we must do better.
In a recent survey by Entrust, they found that consumers believe they are taking proactive steps when it comes to protecting themselves, yet they actually have a poor understanding of data privacy altogether.
So, what gives?
You know it’s important to keep your passwords and other sensitive data safe from hackers, but how? Let’s dive deeper into what it means to keep your data private and secure, for yourself and your business.
When it comes to protecting your data, it all begins with a secure password or better yet, a secure passphrase. Shorter, less complex passwords, which are typically one word with a mix of a few capital letters, numbers, and a special character are guessed way too easily. Rather using a passphrase with the help of a reputable password manager can help combat this. While password managers generate a complex string of letters, numbers, and special characters for your accounts, you still need to remember a complex password for your password manager. This is where using a passphrase versus a single word comes in handy.
When creating your passphrase avoid using easily guessed words such as password, admin, qwerty, etc. You also don’t want to use any sensitive information such as your birth date, credit card number, social security number, children or pet names, addresses, and so on. Instead, think of a phrase memorable to you, such as lyrics to a song. Now take that phrase and add in some upper and lowercase, numbers, and special characters. Or take an even longer phrase, but only use the first or last letter of each word, and still use upper and lower case, numbers, and special characters.
Remember, your password is only for you to know, so don’t share your password. This includes not writing your password down on a sticky note near your computer too. As anyone can easily find it and now they have access to your account.
When you download an app, sign up for a new account, or any time you blindly select ‘I Agree’ to the terms, do you know what you are actually agreeing to? Most of us don’t take the time to go through all of the terms, but it’s important to know what information we are allowing to be shared about us from a social media account or new app.
It’s a good idea to take the time and go through the privacy and security settings on our apps and social media accounts to make sure we are okay with the amount of data being collected on us or the control each app and account has on our devices. Which have access to your photos, microphone, camera, contacts, and so on? Do all of those applications really need that access?
When you get a new device such as a phone, tablet, laptop, it’s a good idea to configure your privacy settings right away. Zack Whittaker explains that “This ensures that you're not inadvertently sharing sensitive information as you set up your standard apps and services.” Such privacy settings include allowing users to limit how long data is stored for, such as message expiry features and new private browsing settings.
Another way to protect your data is through the use of encryption, which is the conversion of data from a readable format into an encoded format that can only be read or processed after it’s been decrypted. This is to ensure that the information being sent cannot be stolen or compromised.
Encryption is typically used for emails, payment data, and other sensitive information. Only the recipient who has the private key that matches the public key used to encrypt the message can decipher the message for reading. Without the correct key, the contents of the email will be indecipherable. While encryption sounds challenging, it doesn’t have to be.
Let’s take email for example, at Omega we use Outlook, which makes it very simple to encrypt email messages. All you have to do to protect the information being sent through email is select the ‘Encrypt’ button in the compose box. That’s it. Now the contents of your message are only able to be deciphered by the recipient with the key.
Firewall, Antivirus, and a VPN…You’ve probably heard of these three in every cybersecurity tip blog post you’ve read. Yet, this trio is your backbone to strong defenses when it comes to protecting your data.
A firewall keeps your network safe by filtering traffic and blocking outsiders from gaining unauthorized access to the private data on your computer.
Another way to protect your data from being accessed by bad actors, is by using antivirus software. This software looks at data, such as web pages, files, software, and applications for known threats and monitors the behavior of the previously mentioned for anything suspicious.
And last we have a VPN, or virtual private network, which uses encryption when data is sent over a private Wi-Fi connection. Otherwise, when using public Wi-Fi anyone else on the network can snoop on your internet activity, which you don’t want when accessing sensitive information.
It’s important for each and every member of your organization to understand how to keep data protected and secure. From handling and storing data to knowing when to or when not to disclose personal information (Don’t fall for those phishing emails!) to different security policies and everything in between.
While the above easy-to-use data protection tips are not an exhaustive list to keeping data safe, it’s a great place to start. If your business is overwhelmed with the challenges of data security and protection regulations, reach out to an MSP that can keep your business secure and compliant.