What Are the Best Ways to Secure Online Data?

The business world is always rapidly changing, making it more important than ever that the technologies used for everyday communications and workflow aren't just the most efficient, but also the most secure. While this year saw a rise in remote workflow increase, the internal communications between team members regularly function on a virtual level, including the sharing of cloud storage document management. This means businesses of every industry must work especially hard to secure their data online. Here, we will look at a few of the best ways that you can secure your own data, ensuring that all sensitive documents are safe and in the right hands.

Onsite Security Protocols

Many employees have continued to work from home, plugging into a virtual workspace in order to communicate with administrators. However, even workers remaining onsite take to cloud-based systems and virtual dashboards in order to work alongside others within the company. This has given rise to corporate dependency upon secure online document management, in concurrence with other virtual collaboration tools. With electronic documents becoming the industry standard, this makes the encryption and access control of electronic files even more crucial in protecting the integrity of every company's most valuable assets: its intellectual property and financial data.

While Google Drive and Dropbox are very popular for records management on both a consumer level, keep in mind that the more delicate the information, the higher the probability that your company should invest in more secure document management, just as a licensed virtual data room (an encrypted document repository) for all your most valuable business needs.

Aside from investing in industrial-strength in a document management solution, also make it a point to relay the importance of common security protocols to every employee granted permission, to access your business' internal infrastructure and digital documents. Remind employees to create strong passwords and to never save them within the login account at the end of the day, and be sure that your department administrators stay on top of the teams' privacy settings.

Basic templates or defaults for privacy settings should be in place as a standard for all permission-based information and workflow. In addition, the company's account should have restrictions on web browser use (a true necessity as part of today's compliance requirements), as well as a continued security check of your company's internet connection. These final two protocols not only increase overall data security but will act as a secure way to increase productivity.

Remote Workers and Cybersecurity

Over the past year, there was no way to get around working remotely. In fact, many companies have kept the practice as an ongoing solution for health safety, as well as budget concerns. With that "new normal," however, there should be no compromise to the security and integrity of your business' key documents and internal data.

If you've already installed the best document management software and continued your efforts to instill a sense of protocol in your employees, you're on the right track. However, keep in mind how many of your team members will also be depending upon cloud solutions and mobile devices for their daily workflow. With this consideration, additional security concerns are raised, especially with file storage and document management solutions for remote employees.

For convenience, many collaborative software companies have cell phones and tablets in mind (introducing mobile apps that mimic the desktop features), disregarding the true value of certain business data. Aside from mandating that mobile devices not be used for work-based data sharing, there are a few other options to keep your team morale high, while still safeguarding your data. Issuing laptops or mobile device with preinstalled security software is one solid, yet expensive option.

A more cost-efficient solution would be to have uniform cloud storage services and online document storage mandatorily used by every team member, which would guarantee both a safety standard and administrative access. Additionally, this would create an audit trail as part of the collaboration features, and the use of cookies and metadata could provide proof of compliance.

As times change, every business has to stay ahead of the trends. Aside from efficiency and accurate workflow, a standard of security protocols should also provide you the peace of mind that your business is always protected, whether onsite or from the convenience of your home workspace.