Is Your data Safe?

Many small business use laptops or mobile devices in their day to day use but do they take any care with the data stored on it? Your data is the lifeblood of your business.  Think of the time it would take if you had to re-enter all of your work.  Could you?

Many people do back up their data, but it could still be much better. We are constantly meeting new clients who have the most basic data backup systems in place.  Often as not it’s not been tested, until it’s too late.

The idea of data security was brought sharply into focus a little while ago when we were assisting a new client. The client sold services that often carry sensative information, so you can imagine the type of data that was stored on their laptop.  While we were chatting and working on the main task, we casually enquired about what kind of data security they were using.

“ I use a password on Windows” was the answer.

Anyone with even a basic knowledge of I.T systems will tell you that an M.S Windows password is incredibly easy to bypass. In fact, we use software designed to recover Windows passwords when clients have locked themselves out or forgotten their passwords.

For someone carrying sensative information the threat to them and their business cannot be understated.  If that laptop had been lost or stolen ( and thousands do go missing in the U.K each year ) the damage to that business in lost revenue and more importantly the damage to their reputation.

There’s also the risk of legal ramifications. The U.K’s Data Registrar takes a very dim view on data loss and can levy large fines against organisations that loose data.

There could also be a risk of civil action against an organisation.

The overriding question would be; ‘What steps have you taken to protect your company’s data?’

In this particular instance we installed a free piece of encryption software called Trucrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/).  This allows the client to carry their data from A to B, safe in the knowledge that the data is encrypted to a very strong level.  This encryption not only works with laptops but many portable devices, including USB pen drives.

How many people carry sensitive information unprotected USB devices ?

If the laptop were lost or stolen, it would take an expert with some very powerful computing ability and a very long time to break the encryption, if at all. In fact, under U.K law it is an offence to refuse to hand over a password to Police or other law enforcement.

Now, it’s at this point that you are probably thinking that none of this applies to me or my business.

We have worked with many businesses over the years and it’s amazing at the type of data they do carry. Let’s put it another way; would you discuss your business details and those of your clients in the middle of Oxford Street in London? ( Northumberland Street in Newcastleor any other public place ? ).

Now is the time to really look at what data you do have and how it’s stored, it might be something of an eye opener.