Ensuring that you take care of confidential data is important no matter what type of business you run. From CVs and invoices to business plans and financial details, all of these things need to be kept safe and away from people who should not have access to them.
As a business, you are responsible for keeping this information safe and doing your best to ensure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
What is a Data Breach?
A data breach is when information that is sensitive or confidential, is accessed by someone who is not authorised to be seeing it. It is very important to protect your staff, customers and your business as data that makes its way into the wrong hands can be used to commit crimes, such as fraud and data theft.
A data breach can happen in many ways – from an email sent accidentally to the wrong person, to a thief breaking into your business and stealing computers or paperwork that contain confidential information.
The Consequences for your Business
There are many consequences for your business if you suffer a data breach. First of all, the legal side of it means that you may be liable to pay damages to an employee or client that has been the victim of the breach. You can also be prosecuted if you are not compliant with data laws.
Your reputation as a business can also take a hit. Having access to confidential data is based on trust, and when people hear that there has been a breach in confidentiality, it can severely damage the reputation of your business, which can then have an impact on your finances.
How to Protect your Confidential Data
There are many things that you can do in order to protect confidential data. If you store paper based data, this should be locked away securely in a safe, a room or a filing cabinet. You should also take care of how you dispose of this data, and get a professional like this confidential waste disposal Swindon based company printwaste.co.uk/confidential-shredding/confidential-shredding-swindon to destroy it securely and safely.
Electronic data also needs to be protected from data breaches, and you can do this by ensuring that all devices are protected with passwords as well as having good internet security to reduce the risk of a cyber attack on your computers.