If the bulk of your business operations are done online, it is very important for you to know how to protect your company’s data and sensitive information. This is especially more important if you store all your customers’ data online. If you don’t protect it, some bad people might try to break your online storage and steal it from you. This has been done many times in the past where big corporations lose their customer’s data due to hacker attacks. So, you need to be aware of this potential threat.
In order to best protect your business data, you have to ensure that your employees can work together with you in protecting it. Here are 5 privacy rules your business needs to have for employees using your business network:
1. It is Forbidden for the Employees to Share Business Information on Social Media
You have to make it clear that any business information is not shareable in social media. Your employees cannot share any information related to your company in their personal social media accounts. This is important because if you don’t set any boundaries for your employees, your private company information might be spread without your consent, and it can be very damaging for your business. Only share information on social media when the employees are using business-related accounts for the purpose of marketing your products or services. The employees need to keep their work and personal life separate from each other.
2. Employees Must Access Your Business Network via VPN
To prevent any leak of data transmission, you need to require the workers in your company to access the business network only via the virtual private connection. You can supply the VPN details for each employee for them to access the business system when they need it. Make the system to disallow access when the network connection used is a public or unsecured network. By keeping the network private for your business system, only authorized employees can access your private data, and it prevents any potential threats from the outside.
3. Employees Must Change Their Passwords Regularly and Use Two-Factor Authentication
It has to be a regular practice for your employees to change their passwords regularly. It is better for you to set a schedule for them to change their access passwords. You should require them to change their passwords at least once a week and then make it mandatory for them to turn on the two-factor authentication. In this way, whenever they need to access your business network, they can always secure their data transmission. Hacking cannot be done when two-factor authentication is on and the passwords are changed regularly. If possible, you can supply your employees with the access to a good password manager software.
4. The Devices Supplied by the Company Must be Used Solely for Business Purposes
If you supply the employees with devices like computers, tablets, or smartphones, make it clear for them that they can only use the devices for business purposes. In other words, they cannot use it for personal purposes like playing games, browsing social media, watching YouTube, and so on. If possible, you can lock the devices and only make it work for business-related tasks. Supply all required business-related software or apps on the device and you shouldn’t allow them to add any additional software or apps or alter the device configurations. In this way, you can keep their data transmissions secure and private without any compromise.
5. Employees are Responsible to Keep All Software or Apps Up to Date
Again, if you are supplying your employees with some devices, you need to remind your employees to keep all software or apps up to date. This is required for a smooth business operation because up-to-date software and apps can keep the device security at its maximum. It is more difficult for third-parties to hack your devices if they are up to date with the latest security patches. Also, it makes all the private and sensitive data protected all the time. Using outdated software or apps will only make your devices perform sluggishly, and there will be lots of security vulnerabilities that can endanger your business data.
Those are the privacy rules your business needs to have for employees using your business network. You need to work together with your employees to keep everything under control, including the private data, data transmission, information storage, and many other aspects of your business. In this way, you can keep your customers feel safe when they have business with your company.