How A Business Can Protect Data When Employees Leave
When you run your own business, losing employees from time to time is inevitable. Before they leave, you should ensure your sensitive company data won’t be traveling with them. According to a survey published by Biscom in late 2015, 87 percent of employees who leave a job take the data they have created with them. Twenty-eight percent of employees even leave with data other employees have created. Don’t let this happen to your business. You can protect sensitive data by following these steps:
- Create a robust employee contract. This contract should have a data protection clause prohibiting employees from accessing and misusing company data once they have left the organization.
- Use the cloud. When data isn’t being stored locally, it’s easier to limit employee access to systems and information. You can quickly change an employee’s password so he/she can’t breach your systems.
- Isolate sensitive data. Store confidential information on the smallest number of workstations or servers possible, and segregate it from the rest of your data and network. The fewer copies of sensitive data you have, the easier it is to protect.
- Manage and secure passwords. Use a password management tool to automatically create, store, and share secure passwords with members of your team. When an employee leaves, simply disable his/her account, and they instantly lose access to all company login information.
- Encrypt sensitive data. Encryption is always a good idea, but it’s particularly worthwhile if your data is mobile. Even in the event of a data breach, properly encrypted data will remain secure.
- Change passwords. Change the passwords for all the sensitive logins the employee had access to, and deactivate or blacklist all their individual accounts.
- Consider outsourcing security. You may want to think about outsourcing firewall management, intrusion testing, and vulnerability management to professional IT consultants. A qualified managed security solution can often provide a company with better security at a lower cost than their current in-house solution.
Following these tips will help you keep your valuable business data secure. If you’d like professional guidance when it comes to securing your sensitive information, JFG, Inc. can help! To learn more about what our experienced IT service and consulting services can do for your business, contact us at 910-378-3868.