Most businesses just don’t know how to protect their data. Unfortunately, being an IT guy has forced me to speed through Los Angeles traffic to save businesses from emergency data problems they could have easily prevented. Listed below is a list of data prevention methods that all business owners must take to save their data.
1. NO BACKUP - If you are running a business, you MUST backup your data. Just like how you make a copy of all your important paper documents, you must do the same for all your digital information. Your data could very easily be stolen, corrupted, or become permanently damaged in the event of an accident or theft. Data recovery services may not always work and they usually take a bit of time. If you’re going to backup, make sure you get a reliable system that backs up daily and that you can verify that it works. You should also have an off-site backup service or at least have two backups so you can take one home. Your backups MUST be reliable - don’t wait until your data goes missing to find out that your backups haven’t worked.
2. PHYSICAL SECURITY - Your shop could be broken into any day. Your computer should be store in a location safe from as many physical threats as possible. Safety against theft, fire, flood, and anything else you can think of would be ideal. What would happen to your business if your company server disappeared in the middle of the night? Would you go out of business? Think about it.
3. DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEES - An angry employee or one that just doesn’t like you could easily compromise your whole office network’s security by easily copying off all accessible files. Disgruntled employees have been known to steal data, misuse customer information, commit check fraud, and even sabotage important company files. It is very important that you as a boss immediately pick up on suspicious behavior or distant attitude from your employees. An insider is the most dangerous person to your business because of their access to all of your business information.
4. POWER SURGE - Surge protectors are an absolute must for all equipment. There is no reason why your entire computer systems should be left vulnerable to dangerous power surges when that could be easily prevented with a $30 device. UPS (interruptible power supply) devices would be an even better choice as they allow your systems extra time to save data and shutdown properly in case the electricity shuts off for whatever reason. The cost maybe much higher but definitely worth it over the long run.
5. ANTI-VIRUS AND SPYWARE - Too many just don’t understand or care about the many risks of viruses on computers. While viruses may not directly your data, they do a good job of corrupting your Windows operating system to a point of complete failure. I’ve seen many instances where Windows refused to boot even after the viruses were removed. I’ve held back many chuckles in my lifetime when hearing a client say they don’t need anti-virus because they never get viruses. Whether or not it’s true, it isn’t smart to live dangerously until you get hurt.
6. SPYWARE - Many people associate spyware with unwanted pop-ups or advertising takeovers on their computer. While spyware is often used to harass the user with aggressive advertisements, it is also used to send your private information to hackers over the internet. We must all remember that the definition of spyware means “Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user’s internet connection without his or her knowledge and transmit information in the background to someone else, usually for advertising purposes BUT NOT ALWAYS”.
7. COMPUTER-ILLITERATE USERS - New computer users can be just as dangerous as disgruntled employees. I’ve also seen new computer users accidentally delete files or drop one folder into another on numerous occasions and them claim that the data has disappeared. New computer users have also been known to surf websites with no regard for the computer safety and click “Yes” to every pop-up window with suspicious security certificates or sites offering to install FREE software. The list goes on and on, make sure someone has been trained to properly use a computer before you let them touch one.
8. NOT USING PERMISSIONS - Employees should never have access to files they don’t need to access. Avoid using full-access permissions for shared files except other than necessary. Just like I previously mentioned, the files could easily be deleted by accident by new users or even intentionally deleted by angry employees. Another important note to make is to be careful sharing certain directories on your computer when use file-sharing programs such as ones used to download music and movies. Some people will accidentally share private folders on their computer containing personal information.
9. OLD HARD DRIVES - Always upgrade old hard drives before they fail on you. Today’s hard drives hold more information while still being manufactured to the same physical size. Higher capacity under the same space would only mean that everything is built to be more sensitive. Just because your old dinosaur tower lasted for 5 years doesn’t mean your latest computer will. Hard drives only carry a 3 year warranty which pretty much means it’s a time-bomb set to go off in 3 years. Hard drives have become very affordable lately and there’s no reason why you can’t change your most important drives once every 3 years. It’s generally recommended to replace your computer within that time anyways. One mistake I’ve also seen all the time is people who still use their hard drives even after getting Windows messages about data corruption or errors being detected on the hard drive.
10. YOU - Most small business owners feel that their business is too low-tech to worry about computer issues. Other business owners mistakenly feel that as long as a computer works, they have nothing to worry about. Nothing could be further than the truth! It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in business without issues or how your friends’ businesses have gotten along without virus scans. If you own a business, it is your responsibility to be aware of every possible threat to your computer or at least hire someone who can manage that for you. In Los Angeles, you pay a fine if you don’t stay on top of all the latest tax laws; there is no such thing as “I didn’t know.”
In the end, the themes concerning data protection will repeat itself time and time again. Secure everything against all threats, natural, physical, and human including yourself. Always have multiple backup copies and make sure they are kept safe .
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