Keeping your data safe will improve your reputation in the industry and help you get more clients. In today’s digital age, clients prefer to work with brands that value their privacy and take the right steps of precaution to ensure that no data gets leaked or lost during their entire experience with that brand.
But it’s no secret that businesses face a lot of challenges in organizational security field as the risk of online operations is ever-evolving. This is why you, as a business, need to adapt and keep up with the latest trends in data security. Setting up a robust organizational security policy that covers all the possible data vulnerabilities of your business is your best option if you want to keep your existing clients and bring new ones in.
However, this might be very difficult to do if you haven’t already taken some steps to achieve it. Below, we share a simple guide on how you can keep all of your data safe and secure.
Conduct a Complete Audit
You will first have to analyze your business operations and how you conduct them to see whether some processes pose a risk to your data security. Doing this alone will be very difficult, so you will need a third-party audit body specializing in data security.
Once you have the report in your hand, you can identify risks and implement adequate controls to mitigate those risks. If you are a service organization that gathers clients’ data, the monetary investment in an adult will result in ROI and an increase in credibility among stakeholders, potential investors, etc.
Besides that, clients that want to work with you and receive your services will ask for SOC 1 report. A SOC 1 audit is of utmost importance if you want to showcase your professionalism and demonstrate to your clients that all of your internal controls over financial reporting are up to standards. This type of report will enable you to close deals with clients faster, as the majority of them ask you for one during the course of their own personal audits.
If you want to ensure that you provide only the best for your service users, seek an independent CPA to obtain a SOC 1 report and completely secure your user’s data.
Keep Software Up To Date
Many, if not all, businesses use some type of tools, including VPNs, to deliver high-quality services to clients. The teams behind the software regularly implement updates that boost performance and increase security.
When hackers develop a new exploit, software developers will be quick to realize an update to ensure that their software users do not become victims of malicious attacks. That being the case, you should always check for updates for software and applications you regularly use, and schedule them out of working hours to avoid disruptions and maintain data security.
Educate Your Employees On Organizational security
82% of cyberattacks stem from human error, and this is why you need to educate your employees to exercise the best security practices. All of your employees should be able to identify active attacks or data leaks so that they can inform you and take adequate steps to secure your user’s data. Your employees should also be educated on physical security. Make sure that they know not to share or leave keys, keycards or physical access control credentials laying around, as this could result in a security breach.
You will also have to plan a disaster recovery strategy with them. In the worst-case scenario, you won’t be able to fight off an active cyberattack, but your disaster recovery strategy will help you secure the most sensitive and crucial data.
Back-Up Your Files
A backup strategy will save you skin in the case of a cyberattack that wipes your data from the cloud. Even if it’s super convenient to deposit all of your data on the cloud, losing it can damage your reputation.
To avoid this, opt for both on-cloud and on-premise data storage. Servers are incredibly secure and are far safer for data storage than clouds, but be wary that you will need to invest a significant amount of money to get your hands on this type of hardware. Even the cheapest servers can cost you more than $500, so carefully consider whether this is the right data storage solution for your business at this particular point in time.
Bottom Line
Your client base can increase exponentially if you secure your data, and in addition to that, your existing ones will value the fact that you go to extreme lengths to ensure they receive only the best. Audits conducted by CPA-certified experts will make this process easier for you as they will provide you with all the right information you can later use to bolster your business’s entire security.
