Does your small business employ a comprehensive data loss prevention strategy? If not, it’s time to develop one. Small businesses have a wealth of important data. Whether it’s data that’s central to the operation of your business, sensitive customer or partner data, employee information, or anything else, it needs to be protected. The consequences of data loss can be devastating. It may damage your customers’ trust, cost your business greatly, and bring business operations to a halt.
It’s clear that data loss prevention is essential for your small business. Read on to learn the key components of a comprehensive data loss prevention strategy and our recommendations for the best data loss prevention tools for your small business.
1. Back Up Data Frequently
The first and most simple data loss prevention tip for small businesses is to back up data frequently. Just like making a copy of your house key, backing up your data to a safe and secure location helps ensure you’ll never lose it.
Backing up your data can protect you in the face of file corruption, hardware failure, cyberattacks, human error, and other devastating sources of data loss. In a worst-case scenario, you may only lose a day’s worth of work thanks to frequent backups, rather than a lifetime.
There are a number of different ways you can back up your data to prevent data loss. Backups may be made onto an external hard drive or a physical server, but these methods still have the potential for data loss. Both hard drives and physical servers can become corrupt or fail. Let’s say you back up to an external hard drive and store it in your closet, but then your office floods. You may have backed up your data, but that backup was destroyed alongside your computer.
For the most secure backup possible, back up your data to the cloud instead. This offers a totally remote duplicate that can be accessed from anywhere. There are a range of cloud storage services available. Simply choose the best option for your needs and set up a regular automatic backup—ideally every day.
2. Invest in Cybersecurity Tools
Another essential set of data loss prevention tools is cybersecurity tools. In today’s day and age, cyber threats are a serious risk for all small businesses. From malware to phishing to directly targeted attacks, there are many avenues through which attackers can access your private data. A cyberattack may expose your sensitive company data or customer data, overwhelm your network, or wipe out your whole system.
To protect your small business from cyberattacks, it’s essential to have a strong network security monitoring protocol. This can help you detect and address cyberattacks before they can do any harm. Key components of strong network security include:
- TSL/SSL decryption: Cybercriminals often hide behind data encryption when attempting to distribute malware, phish, or access sensitive data. TSL/SSL decryption tools enable your network administrators to decrypt any encrypted traffic that comes across your network and identify attackers.
- Event logging: In order to protect your network, it’s important to have a bird’s-eye view of all activity on your network at all times. Event logging allows you to do so. First, keep a record of everything that’s happening in your system. Then, analyze those logs to identify any potential threats.
3. Prioritize Physical Security
Of course, not all data loss threats are virtual. Another key, simple data loss prevention strategy for small businesses is to prioritize physical security. Just as a bad actor can virtually enter your databases through your network, they can also access information through your physical computers, hardware, documentation, and more.
A strong physical security protocol includes the following elements:
- Limited access: Control access to your office to authorized personnel only to protect against data loss from theft of property like computers, files, and other important information.
- Secured files: Any physical materials with sensitive company or customer information should be securely kept in locked file cabinets or other secure storage, and access should be limited to only those who need it.
- Secure disposal: Always shred documents containing sensitive information before disposing of them.
- Emergency plan: Not all data loss threats are human. Put a plan in place in the event of an emergency. Decide what will happen with sensitive materials and who will be in charge of doing so.
4. Train Team Members
Simple data loss prevention strategies for small businesses are only effective if everyone participates. Once you’ve outlined your data loss prevention strategies and selected your data loss prevention tools, it’s time to make sure the whole team is trained.
Create comprehensive training materials that outline each step of your policies. Define how data should be handled, who should have access to what information, security protocols, and consequences for not following protocol. Then, walk your staff through the training materials. You may need to hold a few different training sessions based on your staff’s different access levels. Ensure everyone doesn’t just read the materials but thoroughly understands them, too.
These guidelines should also become an essential part of employee onboarding. As you bring on new team members, ensure each is thoroughly trained on your data loss prevention strategies.
Most importantly, reassess your strategies and retrain your staff regularly. There are always new developments in cyberthreats and new protocols to keep your data safe. Stay up-to-date on the latest to keep your small business safe.
5. Develop a Contingency Plan
No matter how strong your data loss prevention strategies, it’s always important to be prepared for the worst possible outcome. Identify what will happen if a data breach occurs. Consider questions including:
- How do team members support an incident?
- Who will take the lead on addressing the incident?
- What will happen to the device/network/cloud where the incident occurred?
- How will employees be notified?
- How will customers or other affected external parties be notified?
In an ideal world, you’ll never need to use your contingency plan—but it’s important to have in place, nonetheless. A strong contingency plan may be the difference between quickly recovering from an attack or floundering in response.
