5 Ways to Prevent Identity Theft for Business

Did you know that the U.S. Small Business Administration estimates that identity theft costs businesses globally $221 billion a year?

It is an expensive risk for businesses not to be prepared for hackers and identity thieves to strike. Moreover, it can interfere with the trust your consumers have for your business.

Criminals can seize a company’s identity and subsequently use it to acquire credit, causing a slew of issues. Then, they will use the credit to make large purchases and damage the company’s credit.

To stop these thieves from interfering with your business, here are five ways to prevent identity theft.

1. Have a Destruction of Data Policy

One of the simplest strategies is to have a data destruction policy. This is essentially destroying data that is no longer needed and how employees go about doing so.

Once a file hasn’t been used for a certain amount of time, it should be eliminated. Moreover, if old equipment is ever replaced, ensure that it undergoes data sanitation to wipe it clean.

2. Secure Paper Documents

Sensitive paper documents should be secured with a variety of techniques, including keeping them under lock and key.

Moreover, once they are no longer needed, paper documents should be shredded and disposed of properly. Never leave them in an unsecured location.

3. Minimize Stored Information

More data means more opportunity for criminals to steal sensitive information. One of the most important ways to prevent identity theft for a business is to minimize the amount of data stored in the first place.

Any information that isn’t necessary to collect and store should be left out, as this gives criminals less information to work with.

4. Always Use Password Protection

Stop identity theft by always using password protection. Additionally, consider mandating stronger passwords for employees to access data, such as those with special characters and a mix of capitalizations.

5. Implement Data Encryption

A form of data encryption should be standard for all businesses, as it makes it much harder for identity thieves to access sensitive information.

Essentially, encryption transforms normal text into indecipherable ciphertext using an algorithm. This prevents emails and information getting into the wrong hands.

The Best Ways to Prevent Identity Theft

All and all, there are many different ways to prevent identity theft by protecting data and destroying it when it is no longer needed.

Software and network security can also be useful in preventing identity theft, especially online.

Our Unified Threat Management (UTM) can provide an easy way to solve all of your security problems.

A UTM solution from Sagacent Technologies combines the basic IT security measures into one single device, making it easy to manage.

A major risk factor in online security is devices being out of date. Since UTM allows the entire system to be updated from one device, it is much less likely for you to forget to update it regularly.

Sagacent Technologies offers technology management and support, including proactive/preventative maintenance, onsite and offsite data back-ups, network and security audits, mobility solutions, disaster planning and emergency business resumption services. The company serves clients of 10 to 150 employees within the Silicon Valley region.