The cost per breached corporate record is 242 dollars, statistics show. This adds up to average losses of 7.91 million dollars per data breach in a single year!
Ensuring document security is not an easy task. There will be many variables – from the size of the archive to the industry specifics and the document management system chosen by the respective organization.
No matter how you plan to protect your documents, however, document management security errors can lead to disastrous consequences. Some of these issues affect all businesses and remain pretty common, regardless of the latest technological advances.
Here are a couple of the costliest document management security errors you may want to recognize and avoid in a way that meets all your organizational needs.
Lacking a Document Management Security Strategy
Just choosing a high quality document management platform is not enough. You also need to be familiar with all its characteristics so that you can utilize the solution in a well-tailored way.
A document management security strategy outlines the best practices and the safeguards that will be put in place to protect information.
It also provides guidelines for access permission, encryption and the additional protection of files deemed critical for the integrity of the organization.
Here’s an example of such a document that you can use as a guideline for the creation of your own security plan.
Not Digitizing Active Physical Documents
A paper-based archive poses an array of security challenges that can either be reduced or eliminated completely through the selection of cloud-based document management.
The first step in the process is professional document scanning and upon its completion, a lot of the issues related to the maintenance of the paper-based archive will be overcome.
Files that are stored physically can be misplaced, lost or taken out of the organization with malicious intent. Digital solutions have safeguards and workflows in place that minimize the risk of human error and also make malicious activities more challenging to complete.
Not only is a paper-based archive jeopardizing the safety of your documentation, it’s also costing you money in the form of maintenance and employee productivity. Needless to say, these are reasons enough to start considering the switch to digital.
Ineffective Access Permit Allocation
Different permission levels rank among the most useful characteristics of digital document management solutions.
Digital document management security is highly scalable and personalized. You’re in charge of the archive classification and the people who have access to different kinds of documents. Very often, the system will also allow you to enable or disable certain actions (for example, some people will only have the permission to read and access documents without modifying them).
If you do not set different access permits for different groups of employees, you’re increasing the vulnerability of sensitive files. These should be protected by getting a limited status and being visible only to the people who have a specific need to access such data within their line of work.
As this is a relatively basic and universally available option, you really have no excuse to refrain from assigning permissions and limiting access to the most important corporate files.
No Security Audits
Just like you need a document management security strategy, you also need to implement regular audits within your operational procedures.
Document security issues and solutions change all the time.
Technologies that were considered revolutionary and uncrackable just a few years ago have now become completely obsolete. This is why you need to review your technology and your methodologies regularly.
In the absence of audits, you will be embracing vulnerabilities that could eventually compromise your entire archive and cost you a lot.
Doing a document security audit does not have to be costly or complicated. Even if you outsource this process to professionals, you will still get a cost-efficient service that will save you time, money and a lot of potential trouble in the future.
Lacking Mobile Access Policies and Safeguards
Usually, companies have policies and guidelines that refer to the use of information at the workplace.
Cloud-based technologies, however, have made it possible for employees to access information from any location and any internet-enabled device.
While the hardware in your office has probably undergone a security audit, you cannot vouch for the smartphones and tablets that your employees utilize to access the corporate archive remotely.
Such challenges can be difficult to overcome because you’ll need to account for many different kinds of devices.
Handing out corporate-issued gadgets and acquainting workers with the safety guidelines for remote data retrieval are two of the possibilities you should be exploring to reduce mobile access vulnerabilities. If the system you utilize has safeguards in place, these should also be used to make sure that unauthorized remote access attempts are curbed.
With so many solutions and personalized choices on the market, you can really up your document management game. Data is one of your organization’s most important assets. Make sure that it’s handled in the best possible way by addressing some of the vulnerabilities that probably affect your system right now.