5 Privacy Protection Strategies for Your Small Business

Protecting documents and data isn’t the exclusive domain of big corporations. Small business information is being increasingly targeted by criminals. Don’t let your company be an easy target. Use these five privacy protection strategies to protect your small business from identity theft and business fraud:

1. Follow Records Retention Schedules

Keeping information longer than necessary increases your exposure to privacy breach risks, so it’s important to adhere to records retention guidelines. In addition to keeping your small business compliant with state and federal laws, retention schedules ensure you destroy outdated documents containing sensitive data on time, every time. 

2. Control Access to Your Documents

Not every identity theft and business fraud threat is external. Identity theft and business fraud incidents resulting from insider breaches are on the rise. That’s why it’s so important to control internal access to sensitive documents and files.

Offsite records storage is a privacy protection strategy that protects your information from external and internal threats. When stored in a records center, your documents are safeguarded with advanced security systems. Each carton is barcoded and can only be requested by pre-approved individuals in your organization.

3. Practice Routine Shredding

Think of the volume of confidential paperwork in your office that’s generated and handled daily. Are you confident it’s being destroyed securely and promptly? Outsourcing your document destruction to a qualified shredding partner gives you peace of mind. They provide locked bins or consoles that let you dispose of sensitive files much faster than using an office shredder–and without the need to remove staples, paperclips and sticky notes. On a scheduled basis, your information is collected by a screened, uniformed shredding technician and destroyed on-site.

4. Invest in a Media Rotation Service

Many small business owners take backup tapes home for storage. Unfortunately, a do-it-yourself approach to media rotation is laden with risks. What if your car is broken into in the grocery store parking lot on the way home? Or even worse, your house is burglarized? You won’t only lose a tape—you’ll expose your customers and employees to identity theft.

For a reliable privacy protection strategy, consider investing in a media rotation service. After you’ve backed up your data, your tapes are picked up from your desk or server room and transported in a GPS-tracked vehicle to a dedicated media vault for secure offsite storage. There, your private data is protected from theft, fires, floods, natural disasters, and even temperature and humidity fluctuations that can play havoc with your data. 

5. Educate Your Employees

Remember, your employees are the first line of defense from identity theft and business fraud. Keep them informed of privacy breach risks and aware of best practices for protecting financial records, client files and other sensitive information. Regular employee training is one of the most effective strategies for keeping your small business data private.

Protecting your small business from identity theft and business fraud is easier than you think; start by put these five privacy protection strategies into practice!

TRexShred offers NAID AAA certified paper shredding and media destruction services for businesses in Dallas-Fort Worth. To learn more about how we can help you, please contact us by phone or complete the form on this page.