Simple Steps that Increase Data Security for Small Businesses

By Eric Townsend, Intel Corporation

Hello It’s Your Biz readers. I work at Intel Corporation as the Director of Small Business IT Marketing and have joined this esteemed group of bloggers at It’s Your Biz. I will be writing posts on technology issues and topics that affect small businesses, and look forward to your comments and feedback. My first post will tackle the challenging world of security.

Keeping critical business data secure has become more complex in the last five years, especially for small businesses. Increased employee mobility along with the plethora of devices like smartphones, tablets and netbooks have made it especially difficult. For example, during the average life of laptops, one in fourteen will lost or stolen, according to the Ponemon Institute. Small businesses should be especially vigilant about laptop loss, as one lost laptop could contain the financial data or proprietary information for the entire company.

Adding fuel to the fire, more and more small businesses are taking advantage of social media as part of their marketing strategy, which can make PCs more susceptible to spyware. In fact, more than 58 percent of small businesses in Western Europe and North America employ social media to keep in touch with customers, according to AMI-Partners.

Although the various security options may seem daunting, small businesses and their service providers can take simple steps to protect sensitive information critical to their business:

• Make sure your IT service provider updates your security software patches often. Although patch updates can interrupt your workflow, advanced PCs (such as those featuring Intel® vPro™ technology) can be updated remotely during non-working hours. Security updates are critical for all small business, but even more so for businesses in highly regulated industries such as healthcare.
• Password protection isn’t strong enough for today’s hackers. Small businesses should use various forms of encryption like whole-disk encryption and file storage encryption to protect all of their data assets.
• Insist on anti-theft technology in your laptops. If it’s lost or stolen, it can automatically disable itself, protecting your data. If it’s later recovered, your IT service provider can remotely restore it to normal operation.

To compete with large businesses, small businesses need to take advantage of social media and have the ability to mobilize their workforce—but do so without sacrificing data security. As the number of security threats continues to increase, taking advantage of up-to-date security tools can greatly improve your protection.  

Eric Townsend is director of SMB IT Marketing for Intel Corporation. You can contact Eric at activation@intelmsp.com.

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