What is document security, and why is it important to your business?

Your company's documents, be they physical or digital, are constantly exposed to various threats as they are shared using a variety of mediums such as flash drives, email, and the cloud. Research shows that an average business shares its documents with around 826 external domains.

Without sufficient document security policies, detailed revenue statistics, client lists, customer details, and sales reports can easily fall into the hands of competitors or cybercriminals. Managed IT services providers (MSPs) like Complete Document Solutions offer document security services that will keep your business's private information safe at all times.

What is document security, and what are its benefits?

Document security refers to the maintenance of all your documents that are filed, stored, processed, backed up, delivered, and destroyed when no longer needed. Implementing a strong document security policy in your workplace has many advantages, from increasing productivity and improving security. Here are a few ways document security solutions can benefit your SMB in California.

1. It protects your business information, helps you comply with data protection and data privacy regulations, and prevents financial losses resulting from fraud and identity theft.
2. Document security restricts access to highly sensitive information to authorized personnel such as managers and executives only.
3. Switching to an electronic document management system makes it easier to restrict access to specific files and folders. For example, employees can be given access rights and permissions only to the documents directly related to their tasks.
4. Document security makes use of audit trails to enable authorized admins to see who accessed, edited, or copied a specific document, including the time and date of access.
5. Electronic documents are encrypted to ensure that only those who have the right decryption key can view the information stored in them.

What are the biggest document security issues?

Most businesses handle both physical and digital documents, and if not protected, these documents can put your organization, employees, and customers at risk. Here are some of the biggest issues facing document security:

1. Physical documents are easy to steal
Employees may leave important documents out in the open, making them easy targets for thieves.

2. Too many employees have access to sensitive data
Employees need access to sensitive information at some point to complete certain tasks, but that doesn't mean everyone else should have access to it.

3. Physical documents are easily destroyed
Physical documents are fragile and can be easily destroyed. All it takes is a fire or flood to wipe out years of valuable information. One example is Hewlett-Packard losing over 100 boxes of important documents when their office was hit by wildfires in 2017.

4. Unsecured computers are at risk
Digital documents are just as vulnerable as physical ones, especially if you leave your computer or other devices unlocked and unprotected. People passing by unlocked desktop computers can easily access any information stored in it. The same goes for lost or stolen mobile devices. Without any security protocols in place, the information stored in these devices can be easily accessed by anyone.

5. Unused documents are not disposed of properly
Paper documents that are no longer needed must be shredded to protect any confidential information, not left lying around or stored in cabinets. The same is true for files on hard drives or other removable storage devices. Unless you physically destroy these devices, a cybercriminal will have ways to pull valuable information from it.

6. Documents are not backed up
Natural disasters, human errors, equipment failure, and cyberattacks are just some ways you can lose critical data. If you don't back up your data regularly or don't have a disaster recovery plan in place, retrieving all that lost data will be next to impossible.

If you want to ensure your company's essential data is safe, Complete Document Solutions will provide you with an affordable and reliable document security system. Our document security solution includes mobile security, ownership and access protocols, and secure delete and destruction protocols to ensure your documents don't fall into the wrong hands. Call us now to learn more.