Cybersecurity, today, is no longer optional. Almost every newspaper reports on successful hacking and data breaches at well-known organisations. However, document security is not just an issue at large companies — a growing number of small and medium firms are also becoming the targets of hackers. This is why it is essential to take necessary steps in improving data security.

It can be troublesome for small and medium-sized companies to choose the right document security, strategy for their unique businesses. An excellent place in starting to understand your organisation’s security position is to take a document security assessment that can help you to answer the following questions:

• Are your accounts and users secured?
• How safe is your organisation from threats?
• How secure is your organisational data?
• How efficiently are you dealing with document and data security?

Are your accounts and users secured?

In the modern-day workplace, almost every employee works from multiple devices. And, although, this has been excellent for personal productivity, it has developed increased points of entries for cybercriminals to hack in. One of the most significant challenges is to make it simple and effortless for your employees, clients and consumers to connect to your organisational resources, from their preferred devices, while addressing security needs for your business and assets.

Using strong passwords can help protect your accounts, but it is crucial to include multifactor authentication for robust passwords. To gain access to an account, multifactor authentication is safe as it requires two forms of authentication. For instance, you may include security features for users to sign in with a password along with a generated code from an application or a biometric input, such as facial recognition or fingerprints. The processing power of modern hardware makes it easy for multifactor authentication to be enabled on file storages, productivity applications, emails and such, thus bestowing an increased layer of defence to the assets of your company.

How safe is your organisation from threats?

Latest reports indicate that over 40% of businesses with less than 250 employees reported data attacks in the past year. These figures suggest that cybercriminals are increasing attacks on small and medium-sized enterprises alongside large corporations. Some practical ways of reducing your company’s vulnerability that can make a massive difference in data security, are as follows:

• Upgrading software periodically. It is a good idea to ensure that your employees update their software and patch areas that are vulnerable. Updates reduce security vulnerabilities and you should include the operating system, servers, devices, and applications.
• Enhance data security through regular employee training. An excellent way of sharing cybersecurity practices is through the onboarding Following up with regular security training programs can help remind employees about detecting and reporting suspicious emails, links, attachments; avoiding malicious websites and downloading only authenticated and approved applications.

How secure is your organisation data?

The most valuable asset of your organisation is your data. Documents containing private information, to personally identifiable data, sales figures and more are critical to the profitability of your business. If data gets into the wrong hands, it can damage your company. Hence, it is essential to protect sensitive documents in both storage and transmission. An excellent way of protecting critical documents is through encryption. Document security not only guarantees that authorised individuals view the digital information but is invaluable in ensuring that documents can be securely shared outside your company.  If you want to take this further and control how your documents are used (whether they can be printed, or when they expire) then a document DRM system would be the logical choice.

How efficiently are you dealing with document and data security?

A robust defence mechanism is more than just a set of applications and protocols. An organisation requires a powerful approach to how it manages its overall data security. Effective document security management offers visibility into vulnerabilities across all sections within the company and enhances consistency across your data security policies. A strategical document security approach can help your organisation understand the risks and identify opportunities to boost data protection.

A vital ingredient of data security management is to review user access to data, devices, and networks periodically. Employees, designations, and responsibilities are constantly changing, which is why it is essential to know the rules defined to user access and on what resources. Organisations must review that employees have the right kind of access, for the right period, based on their profiles. For instance, an executive in human resources might want to access the database containing financial services during a specific assignment. You can ensure that employees who have left your company or have changed rules are de-provisioned; you can also study any suspicious activity noticed during the interim.

It is critical to evaluate how documents are protected in your business. Unfortunately, not just big organisations must combat hacking attempts. Small and medium-sized organisations are also at risk of danger. You can realistically evaluate the strength of your current data defences and employ specific, actionable, data security solutions that can increase the productivity of your employees and protect your organisational data.