Guest Written By: Shadi Bakhour, B2B Business Unit Director, Canon Middle East
Security is both a basic business requirement and an ongoing concern. It is something that shapes the way businesses both choose and implement technology. As modern businesses process and retain an extraordinarily high amount of sensitive documents and data, any system that enables the sharing and storing of information must deliver watertight security. Businesses need to be confident that their information is safe.
Put Your Data First
Common worries for businesses when it comes to security are scenarios such as losing printed copies of important documents or losing devices containing sensitive data. Businesses must put their data first. From obvious precautions such as backing up all files including customer information and websites, to strengthening passwords and using authentication methods, one of the first steps towards business security is taking basic measures to keep information secure.
Know Where Your Data is
Every size business needs to be aware of where their data is saved, who has access to it, and what monitoring or anomaly detection is in place to alert of a breach or unauthorised access. One of the biggest mistakes that businesses frequently make is permitting third party storage of company data, without safeguards in place to know when employees violate the policy by storing sensitive data on their personal cloud or sharing data in an unauthorised fashion. It also pays to understand the rules that govern the data in the location it’s stored, to reduce the risk of non-compliance.
Train Your Employees
If you employ anyone at your business, ensure they’re trained in basic online security. Employees are the biggest security risk to a company, so take the time to let them know they have to be on the ball when it comes to protecting your business and your customer’s online. Employee security training should also focus on devices – both business and personal. Having processes in place to help ensure nothing confidential leaves the business unless authorised, is also a must.
Strike a Balance Between Security and Usability
Determining the fine line between security and usability can be a tricky task for anybody involved in IT security, from software developers to network administrators. The lack of balance between these two items is one of the things that can make a security system fail. Businesses must make sure their security reduces the burden on users to the minimum required to get the results that are truly needed. For example using a single-sign-on tool for various apps and services can also reduce the burden on users while maintaining the desired security posture
Plan for the Inevitable
Unfortunately security breaches are common, and the larger your business, the more likely it is to be affected. Being proactive over security should help you prevent most attacks but they will never guarantee 100% protection. Prepare for the worst and make sure that, if you couldn’t stop a breach happening, then at least you can spot a breach after it’s happened. Create recovery solutions to help get your servers back up and running if an attack does occur. Also, get your teams to practice dealing with the media – that way, if the reputation of your business is on the line, nobody will say the wrong thing.
Around 79 percent of respondents feel that technology is beneficial to security, and agree that it enables them to operate in a more secure workplace. The volume and sensitive nature of documents and data in an organisation means information sharing solutions must deliver reliable security. However, despite their reservations, 79% of businesses think that technology is playing a crucial role in keeping their documents secure. It is more important than ever for businesses to use the right technology to enable them to both optimise their own business processes, and ensure optimum security for data and information of their employees and customers.
