Data protection for your business

With so much private and personal information being stored digitally, data protection has never been more important.

When you think of business data protection, big corporations or large businesses who store masses of personal customer information might come to mind. As a consumer yourself, you may deal with their security processes as you access your own account and feel reassured to know your private information is so well protected.
But did you realise, as a business owner you may be required to protect your customer’s personal information under the Privacy Act 1988? And even if not legally required to do so, data protection should be a business priority.

What is data protection?

Data protection is securing important or personal information from loss, corruption or compromise. It’s also the ability to restore data to a useable condition should there be a data breach.

What’s considered personal information?

business.gov.au advises personal information may include your customer’s:

name
signature
address, email, telephone number, date of birth
medical records
bank details
photos and videos
IP address
opinions which can be used to identify them.

Does your Australian business need to comply with the Privacy Act?

If your business has an annual turnover of more than $3M, you must comply with the Privacy Act. If your business annual turnover is less than $3M, you may still have to comply, so please check business.gov.au for more details.

Why is business data protection so important?

99 percent of Australian adults have access to the internet meaning more businesses than ever are reliant on online transactions and the cloud. Without the proper safeguards in place, you run the risk of exposing the personal and private information of your customer’s to those looking to compromise this data for their own nefarious purposes. This exposure can have serious implications including personal safety and financial security.
Not only does a data breach expose customer information, but it also exposes your business to bad publicity and a possible loss of income and reputation.
Everyone considers a data breach as just a ransomware or encryption threat. But every piece of data you have is worth money on the dark web. You may think you’re business is not a target but stolen information could be a gold mine to hackers.

The cost of not protecting business data

A recent survey conducted by the Government’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) had some interesting findings.

ACSC receives around 144 reports of cybercrime a day.
Its estimated $300M is lost each year to cybercrime.
62 percent of those surveyed have experienced a cyber security incident.
Almost half admit they don’t really understand cybersecurity or spent less than $500 per year protecting their business data.

How to protect business data

The best way to protect data is to stay alert and:

have unique passwords and use a good password manager
use multi-factor or two factor authentication
use a commercial grade spam filter
don’t click on suspect links or open dodgy emails
use security software, i.e. anti-virus protection
have an IT person on the team
implement security awareness training for your team

If you’re a business without a dedicated IT person, outsourcing your cyber security to the experts is the best way to protect your customers and business.
The IT Agency offers tailored security solutions to keep your business data secure from external attack or intrusion. Whether it’s the cloud, the physical hardware – laptops, tablets, mobile phones etc – or the information stored within, we make sure your business is protected from unauthorised use or access.

Not sure what you need?