The Importance of Information and Document Security

Information theft in companies happens more often than you might think. According to a webinar conducted by document security experts, data theft performed by terminated or untrustworthy employees comes as a bigger threat than hackers; a staggering 87% of former employees take data with them to use for future endeavors. This can jeopardize your hard work and threaten the business you have established.

Hackers are always on the lookout for unsecured data that they can use to blackmail your company. You can prevent this from happening by investing in document security in order to guard your business’ private information. 

Let’s review the reasons why you should take time to consider document security and information security. 

The Advantages of Investing in Document Security

The information that you have established within your company is responsible for keeping your business running smoothly. Unsecured documents can pose threats, especially if there are breaches. Not only do you protect your data from hackers and former employees, but competitors will have no chance in trying to steal your prized data.

Here are some of the advantages of document security: 

1. You Protect Your Business from Copyright Infringement

Businesses go through a lot of processes to produce data that represents their original work. These could be training material, revenue streams, confidential information from clients, or developments that occur within company-wide protocols.

If you have copyrighted material but lack document security they will be susceptible to:

• Manipulation or modification without authorization
• Duplication
• Be used in manners without authority

2. You Protect Your Data from Being Pirated

Piracy doesn’t just occur in movies, software, or music. Your company’s data, meeting details, research data, and all kinds of other valuable information can end up on illegal file sharing websites where it can be downloaded by millions of people around the world.

Just to give an example of how piracy affects companies, data shows that streaming sites such as Netflix and Hulu lose about $50 billion a year from pirated content. 

Here are types of software piracy that your company can experience if you don’t have document security:

• Softlifting – A common type of piracy that means sharing a certain program to someone who is not authorized by the licence agreement to use it. 
• Hard Disk Loading – Committed by hardware dealers which involves loading an unauthorized copy of your software onto a computer that is being sold to the end user. 
• Renting – This happens when someone rents out a copy of your company’s software or data for temporary use without permission. 
• Counterfeiting – This means producing fake copies of your data or software to make it seem authentic to end users. 

All of these detrimental effects can be prevented if you subscribe to a well-trusted document security and document management service provider. 

3. You Safeguard Your Company from Financial Losses

All of the security breaches mentioned above can lead to a troubling loss of finances, which can affect your reputation and relationship with your clients. As an example of a grave financial loss, retail company Target experienced a massive data breach that compromised credit card information of up to 40 million users in 2013. 

The company’s lack of proper document and information security caused victims to deal with unauthorized debit and credit card charges. They also had to change personal information, such as social security numbers and telephone numbers. Adding to that, victims also had to seek the services of investigators to solve the issue. All of these issues cost Target $202 million in financial losses.  

You don’t want this kind of problem to happen to your company, or to your clients, which is why you need to invest in information security. 

4. You Prevent Theft From Occurring Within Your Employees

Companies are expected and tasked to share documents with information that act as the root of your business efficacy. It could be a challenge to know exactly whom these documents are being sent without the right kind of document security in place. The importance of information security is strong in this issue, because competing companies can take advantage of your unmanaged document security.  

If you apply a secure file format with password protection to your documents, you can prevent theft information and protect your company from security breaches. 

Once you are ready to discard unwanted documents with sensitive information, office equipment, such as a document shredder, will prevent potential information theft. Keeping unsecured documents with company secrets and simply discarding them is risky, which is why you should look into print security audit services. 

What Can I Do to Apply Document Security For My Company Files?

1. Password Protect Valuable Files

Perform this task as an extra layer of security. Simply use the password protection in Microsoft Word to restrict unauthorized users from creating changes. 

2. Apply the Use of eSignatures

Configuring eSignatures to your documents allows them to be legally signed digitally, especially if they are contracts that bind agreements or documents containing sensitive information. 

3. Come Up With Advanced Internal Security Policies

Don’t leave sensitive data just for anyone to access or pick up. If you apply a unified or cloud printing protocol, retrieve important documents and talk to your IT personnel to make sure that data is encrypted and that the printer removes archived files on a scheduled basis. 

4. Seek the Help of a Digital Document Management Service

When unsure about your internal practices, it is best to ask help from document management professionals. While your IT personnel can come up with solutions, there are hackers that can discover cracks in your security system and can ultimately threaten the security of your company information. 

Looking for a Reputable Document Security Service Provider?

Integr8 offers streamlining business processes to improve environmental sustainability and document security. Our main goal is to lower our clients’ costs and boost productivity without compromising information security. Whether you’re a small, medium-sized, or large-scale business, we have solutions that will fit your needs and most importantly, protect your valuable data. 

Call us today for a consultation on how to improve your document management and document security service.