Every business uses some kind of IT solutions in their day-to-day operations, whether they are using email to communicate internally or with customers, or if they are simply having a website built that is designed for ease of use. Data protection specifically applies the idea that your business information should be kept safe from threats both internal and external in nature. There are a few key reasons why this is important, and how it can make a difference for your business.
1. Future Business Plans
When you have an IT solution in place, it can be beneficial for your future business plans. Keeping your extension plans, or the product launching strategy safe until you’re ready to implement them is vital. In the same way, keeping your intellectual property safe from other companies who may want to use it for their own benefit can be a difficult task – through data protection measures, especially through cyber security services managed by GA Systems which implement the zero-trust strategy, information will not be compromised or stolen. When talking about data protection, most people think about viruses or hackers. Third-party misuse is, of course, something that you should have measures in place to protect your information from. However, the main threat when it comes to data protection is in fact something else entirely – employees of a company. Theoretically, if someone were to have access to the data in a company, they could leak that information to someone even if they don’t intend to. By creating a data protection strategy that heavily controls who has access to what information, you’re protecting yourself from both outside and inside threats.
2. Customer Data
In today’s world, most people turn to the internet in order to get something they want – whether that’s a product or a service, so naturally, most businesses have a website that they use to sell their items or services. This means that you’re collecting customer data – sensitive information such as their name, address, and credit card details. In this case, you need to have measures in place so that your business information does not get compromised or stolen through no fault of your own. If a website doesn’t have security measures in place, hackers can potentially access the information there that should be kept private. This would not only put your customers in a vulnerable position, but it would also damage your business’s reputation as well. On the other hand, collecting the data ethically, and ensuring that it’s well protected will increase the trust your customers have in your business.
3. Employee Records
A lot of the data that is collected in an office environment are records that are employee-specific. While there are employee records regulations that have been put into place to govern this sort of thing, the regulations only go so far. It’s a fact that criminals or hackers can infiltrate a system and steal or delete records – these days it has become almost effortless for them to do so if they have enough knowledge. How long your employees have been with you, what their roles are, information about their family, or any other personal information they may have shared – all of this should be kept private to protect them. If it was to get into the wrong hands, either through a malicious attack or through carelessness, it could be potentially devastating for someone, so making sure that you have an effective data protection system in place is vital.
4. Brand Image
When it comes to external threats, protecting your brand image is of course something that you should consider. If someone were to get hold of the data on your business and release it (and this includes publishing said information online or offline), it would make your company look very bad. This means that whatever you do collect about customers and employees should be kept under wraps so that the company itself isn’t affected by any slip-ups. Data protection is of course essential in all types of businesses, but especially for companies that deal with sensitive information like credit card details, personal information like names and addresses, or confidential business data that your customers may not want to be shared – such as legal or financial data.
5. Easier Automation
For a lot of companies, this is the most important aspect of data protection – automation. Properly protecting your data will allow you to automate processes that are more tedious or time-consuming, especially across multiple platforms. For example, let’s say that you have a business with clients in 3 different cities. If each client needs certain information from another department but it takes the staff member who needs to provide that information a long time to get it, there’s going to be a delay – and if you have 30 clients in those 3 cities, this could mean a lot of waiting. This is where automation comes in handy – if for example, you have a data protection system in place that encrypts sensitive information, you can send this information to another department without having to worry about it getting leaked. This is extremely valuable for businesses because of the substantial amount of time that will be saved through automation.
Data security and protection is not only important for your business, but it should also be a top priority. It will help you to ensure that all of the information collected about customers and employees is kept safe, prevents damage to your brand image, helps automate tedious tasks that would otherwise eat up time, and ensures that no unethical or criminal activity can take place.
