Improve Document Security for your Home Office.
Work From home? You Still need to take Measures to Ensure Document Security.
Just because you work at home, doesn’t mean your information is not at risk; especially if you work remotely for an organization that handles sensitive information. Having a process to manage those papers while you’re using them and disposing of them after the fact is just as important in your home as it is in the office. If you don’t fall into that first category, but maybe you’re a small business owner, or a freelancer, you should still take the appropriate precautions, whether you need to manage your own personal and business records, or the proprietary or financial information of your clients, you can never be too careful.
According to a report by Ponemon, 50% of small and medium sized businesses surveyed had been breached in the past 12 months. While most of these breaches occurred online, it’s still important to have a process in place to manage, store, and destroy your paper records, as well as protect your digital assets. Here are a few things you can do to improve your practices.
KNOW YOUR RISKS:
Knowing the risks that exist for you and your information is key to finding a way to stop them. Look into different ways that a hacker or other individual with malicious intent might try to access your records (think phishing scams in email or on social networks, malware or spyware, lost paper records, records thrown away or recycled, etc) and come up with a plan to combat those threats.
SECURE YOUR STORAGE:
Just because you work from home doesn’t mean you can’t secure your storage. Consider things like locking file cabinets, or secure file backup systems for your digital assets. Make sure you know who has access to these items and track access if multiple people can access the records or digital archives.
SECURE DESTRUCTION:
When it is time to purge your records, or you have filled up a bin full of papers that need to be properly disposed of, don’t just bust out your traditional office shredder. Using a secure destruction service, whether for documents or digital devices, will ensure that your items are securely disposed of AND that you have record of the destruction, for compliance purposes.
STAY ON TOP OF SECURITY:
Staying up-to-date and informed on risks and solutions is one of the most important things you can to do maintain security of your information. You should also do regular audits of your security measures and retention programs to ensure that standards are being met.
FIND A PROVIDER YOU CAN TRUST:
With 25 years of experience in the records management industry, our team at Augusta Data Storage has built our business on protecting your information. Whether you need storage space, secure shredding, or electronic waste solutions, we’re here to help ensure that your private information stays private. Have questions? Contact us today to learn more about our drop-off shredding or bulk purge options, which a great for personal or home-based business needs.