Small businesses need to be very careful about their use of customer data. Complying with laws, ensuring you do everything in your power to keep data safe, and staying up to date on cyber security are key components of being a responsible business leader. You can make good use of tech here, but you should also consider the points down below to ensure data protection is well weaved into your internal policies. 

Be Up to Date on Data Rights

Data rights will tell you what you’re allowed to ask your customers, clients, and contacts, as well as what you can do with this information and how long you can store it for. Always do your own research into what this means specifically for your business. 

After all, depending on which country you’re operating in, data rights and data protection may sound a little different. Always check your government’s official rules regarding the procurement, usage, and storage of sensitive customer details. Even email addresses count as this!

Use a Safe Sharing Platform

If you have employees outside of the office, or you like to work remotely from time to time throughout the week, you’re going to need to use a safe sharing platform that can be accessed securely. Do your research here; you need to know where details are going, no matter who is on the other side of the screen. 

To get started with this, you might want to look into sharepoint support, as your Microsoft suite has all the tools necessary for an issue like this. However, as long as your access is encrypted, your messages pass across a secure server, and you know who you’re talking to, you can safely share data through multiple apps. 

Keep Access Rights to a Minimum

If you’ve got a team of 10 people, 5 of them at most should have access to sensitive data. This ensures access is kept to a minimum, and then any further sharing is at the discretion of the managerial employees you promoted yourself. 

This adds a layer of integrity to any data storage you need to do, and helps you to stay aware of where your data is going and who is using it. And the less passwords need to be generated, the less access points an outside intrusion is going to have! 

Don’t Underestimate an Antivirus Program

You might think an antivirus program is only essential for personal PCs. But if you don’t use one for your office devices as well, you’re going to be open for malicious intrusion at all times. You can invest in business packages with all the well known antivirus providers out there; all you need to do is choose the one you like the most and make sure it’s deployed in the right place. Double check your firewall and whether this is turned on as well.

When it comes to safe data storage, a small business can be just as capable with company wide advice like this.