Examining Data Security in Your Business

by guest blogger Caryn Morgan, Operational Excellence Specialist

Are you doing all you can to protect your customer’s data?

In this day and age, data security concerns surround us. Which leads us to question, are we doing enough to protect customer data?

According to the research quoted by the Identity Theft Resource Center, 2015 experienced 781 data breaches within the United States, and the business sector was 40 percent of these breaches.

data breach chart

 

Employee error data loss has increased 10% in the last three years. This appears to be a disturbing upward trend. These breaches affected over 164 million records, as compared to 800,000 in 2014. While the number of breaches only increased a bit, the overall records count increased by more than one hundred-fold.

So what are you doing to maximize data security and keep your customer data safe?

  • Do you have customer keypad codes or personal information in your comments or notes fields?
  • Have you audited your data to ensure it’s only the information needed to serve your customers?
  • Do you print information that contains Personal Identifying information?
  • Have you reviewed your IT policies in regard to protecting your customer data?
  • Have you conducted training with your staff to ensure they understand the importance of protecting customer data?
  • Have you removed the hard drive from a copier when it was decommissioned or sold?

When you take some time to review your data, you may find there are many elements that are not necessary to maintain in your Manitou data. Did you know that only two pieces of data can potentially place a customer site at risk? The Federal Trade Commission provides businesses with an excellent resource tool to take stock of your data and steps you can take today to move toward improved customer data security. You don’t have to break the bank to address data security issues; taking reasonable precautions can produce good results.

By taking some time to review your data security, determine where your data could be cleaned and better managed, and add in some timely and informative training, you will be helping to protect your customers’ data and your business.