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Keeping Security in Mind


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It happens all too often that small businesses, large corporations, and even government offices overlook gaps in security measures or even ignore them entirely.

A recent audit of Nevada’s Department of Administration’s Human Resource Management division revealed that the state office had personal records and information such as the Social Security numbers of over 145,000 current and former employees stored on unencrypted databases. Former employee computer user accounts had not been disabled, computer operating system security updates had not been performed, and copy machine hard drives were not routinely erased, leaving this information to be relatively open to outside threats. Much of this stems from poor communication between the state office and their IT provider, Enterprise Information Technology Services, who claimed they were unaware of the need for security measures to be enforced as well as a data encryption and erasure routine to be followed. This goes to show how crucial it is to effectively consider and communicate the needs of your business when putting its well-being in the hands of someone else.

As a business grows and changes, the concept of security tends to grow along with it. It is important to take a moment and ask what security means for your business:

“How can I keep personal or sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands?”
“Do we need a full-time security guard?”
“Should employees require key card access to open certain doors, log into computers, or use copy machines?”
“Is my network protected from outside threats?”
“Is my IT provider engaged and aware of my security needs?”

Asking questions like those above is a great start to protecting your company and its client base. Don’t wait for an audit to discover what is happening in your organization, give us a call now to see how PDP can help!

Check out the Review Journal’s article here.

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