I recently spoke to Central Ontario Crime Prevention Assn (COCPA) about data security. One of the big takeaways was that a lot of breaches are due to personal complacency. Most of us have terrible passwords and go through life believing that breaches only happen to others.

And that’s very dangerous.

What this does is set us up for consequences that can range from personal identity theft to multi-million dollar lawsuits and lost corporate credibility.

So in the interest of helping you and your company stay ahead of the game, I’ve made a list of security “hacks” you should be using to protect yourself and your company – even if you have no security budget.

• Securely shred paper documents (beside photocopier, for instance)
• Transport data securely – ftp, DROPBOX, encrypted
• Establish an internal firewall to help deter breaches
• Password-protect your cell phone
• Use updated browsers, malware software and virus protection software
• Securely destroy hard drives on computers, phones (certificates or destruction avail)
• Don’t use one password for everything
• Don’t save personal information on USB sticks and transport them unsecurely

Remember data security is everyone’s responsibility. Hackers intent on doing damage or stealing information look for the weak links. Your job is to make it as difficult as you possibly can so that they look somewhere other than your company.

If you have any questions about data security please let me know.