Whatever type of business you run, some of the information that you have access to will be sensitive and confidential, and when this is the case, it is essential that you protect it and make sure that it isn’t accessed by anyone who is not authorised to do so.

As well as protecting your business and your clients, you also need to protect the reputation of your business, which can be really negatively impacted by a data breach.

A breach of data happens when confidential information gets into the wrong hands. As a business you have a duty to protect any data that is sensitive or confidential. There are lots of examples of how there can be a data breach – it might be that someone sends an email containing sensitive data to the wrong person, or there could be a theft of a confidential file for example.

The first thing to think about when you are protecting confidential information, is how you will restrict it to only those that should be able to access it. When it comes to modern business, much of this information will be on devices such as computers and tablets, so these need to be carefully protected by passwords and encryption.

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If you keep paper records, they should be in a locked location such as a filing cabinet or safe with a code, or in a locked room that is only accessible to those who are permitted access.

Security on your premises is also important to reduce the risk of burglary. Invest in good quality security to protect your business, such as burglar alarms, visitor sign in systems, security fencing and doors and even security guards if you have a larger premises.

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Disposal of your confidential data is also something to consider – data and identity theft often happens when criminals have access to records that contain confidential information that are being disposed of.

Any confidential paperwork that you are disposing of that contains personal or financial details for example, should be destroyed by someone that specialises in secure destruction such as this confidential shredding Swindon based company printwaste.co.uk/confidential-shredding/confidential-shredding-swindon/ and you can also get confidential media destroyed too, such as hard drives and USBs.