Stealing company information used to be the specialty of spies and conspirators. It was something that only happened to the most powerful of corporations and branches of government.
Nowadays, stealing data is commonplace and anyone can become a victim at any time. The person standing in line behind you might be running a profitable side business stealing other peoples??? sensitive data. The reality is, however, that ???inside??? jobs are the most common when discussing business data theft.
Instead of looking through the crowds trying to pick out the law breakers, and instead of spending boatloads of money conducting thorough background checks on all those whom you encounter in your business, it???s easier to simply protect your data from prying eyes and malicious intentions.
Easier, yes. But protecting company data isn???t something that many small business owners do. Into their computer programs they input their products and pricing, their vendors, their EINs and TINs, their checking account numbers, email addresses of family members, their proprietary information, their marketing plans and formulas ??" everything goes into the computer.
What???s worse is when a business owner stores this type of information on a laptop computer, an item especially vulnerable to theft. Someone stealing laptops probably could care less about the information that is stored on them, but why take that risk. If you???re going to protect your sensitive company data, it???s all or nothing.
And protecting data is definitely your responsibility if you are an accountant or you specialize in other types of financial businesses. Your clients assume you are protecting their financial documents and their other sensitive records. But are you? Kudos to you, if you are. If you are not, you better take this issue seriously right now, before the damage occurs.
The best way to protect data is by using encryption software. Encryption means making data unreadable to everybody except those who know or understand the key or the code. When data is encrypted, it is far more secure than it is if just protected using a password.
Passwords that are required to login to a program are considered authentication methods, where the identity of the person logging in is simply authenticated, or verified. But passwords are easy to figure out and anyone capable of figuring out passwords will still have access to the data contained within.
So for data to truly be protected, you???ve got to go the extra step and encrypt it. There are many encryption programs available today. The most sophisticated of those protect our nation???s secrets.
But for the small business owner, who has minimal understanding of encryption methodologies or terminology, and wants it to stay this way, ease of use is what???s important.
Behind the scenes, all encryption software uses an algorithm or some other complex mathematical processes to scramble the data. Keys or strings of binary numbers (bits) are created and are what is used to mix up the data. The binary numbers and the data mix together and the result are data that is unreadable.
When more binary numbers are used, more encryption combinations are possible. Therefore, longer strings (more binary numbers or bits) are preferred when encrypting because this makes the code even more difficult to break. So it makes sense that 128-bit encryption software is more secure than 56-bit encryption software.
Data that is encrypted is safe from prying eyes which means that your business data is safe. To view data that has been encrypted, it must be decrypted.
Whether you need to protect your e-commerce website, your email, your business data or that of your clients, be sure you use encryption software.
Copyright © 2005 Cavyl Stewart. Get more software tips, strategies and recommendations by signing up for my Exclusive 100% free, 100% original content ecourses. Visit: http://www.find-small-business-software.com/free-ecourses.php
whole house cleaning Deerfield ..Microsoft Business Solutions Small Business Manager is scaled down Great... Read More
Hi, Guys,I believe a lot of programmers are trying to... Read More
Programming Help for BeginnersWe write programs to instruct computers. When... Read More
Words we choose to describe things and phenomena often show... Read More
MS CRM is very close to document workflow automation, including... Read More
Software development is a risky business.Many software developers are barely... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions ? Great Plains has captured the US... Read More
It???s easy to understand why you might be drawn to... Read More
The stakes are high when considering security, privacy, and savings,... Read More
Trying to figure out a stream in banning one email... Read More
Every organization which creates collaborative documents, whether they are budgets,... Read More
Should one use Windows Update?This topic has good and valid... Read More
An operating system (abbreviated OS) is essentially the path through... Read More
There are many commands that are used in linux on... Read More
Crystal Reports is the most flexible tool on the market... Read More
If you're online using a dialup Internet connection, you'll probably... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Navision serves both European and American megamarkets.... Read More
Since technology changes so quickly, it is hard to begin... Read More
To all web designers out there, this article is for... Read More
Microsoft CRM customization techniques are very diversified and based on... Read More
In the new era of internet marketing the problem of... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very popular ERP platform... Read More
If you are to buy a HelpDesk & Asset Management... Read More
Internet worms. Is your PC infected?If your computer has become... Read More
A UNIX Shell is in simplest terms, a command line... Read More
home cleaning services Des Plaines ..It's all about turn times in the eMedia industry! The... Read More
Our opinion is based on our Microsoft Business Solutions Great... Read More
So, why should you use any O/R mapping tool? I... Read More
Domino server is a buffer between the operation system and... Read More
Writing software manuals is boring, isn't it? We often think:... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon and CRM... Read More
Microsoft Retail Management (RMS) and Microsoft Great Plains are retail... Read More
With so many Microsoft Windows related viruses, errors, and other... Read More
Microsoft CRM is winning market share step-by-step from such the... Read More
This article is for advanced Microsoft CRM SDK C# developers.... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is present several years on the... Read More
Microsoft Retail Management System serves retail single store as well... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions accounting package... Read More
We all already got used to computer monitoring both at... Read More
Let us give you - developer some hints in the... Read More
We all take the computer for granted. I mean, all... Read More
Designing without tables by using CSS layouts is fast becoming... Read More
IBM Lotus Domino or Microsoft Exchange?The severe competition continues for... Read More
What is Snort?Snort is an open source network intrusion detection... Read More
There are certain pluses and minuses in both cases and... Read More
Does Microsoft care for WebmastersIt's always been a problem with... Read More
Before September 1995, Microsoft Windows was an MS-DOS program. DOS... Read More
TikiWiki is open source software - it is written in... Read More
Google Inc. has launched a new software package that allows... Read More
Microsoft released Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the Windows XP... Read More
Software |