It so happens that a company finds out when employees are sending photos of confidential documents to social networks or selling classified documents. In such cases, the court’s decision depends on how competently the company protects its secrets. We talk about how to protect information within the company adequately. But first, some practical advice on how to protect your personal information.
Be vigilant
Our first advice to a person is to be as vigilant as possible and show increased attentiveness, and the main thing is to monitor the whole process, say, to copy documents. If an employee of the company says, I will make a copy in another room, then go with him and make sure that he does not steal your data.
It is important to remember that even the most trusted companies and organizations can become sources of leakage of your personal information. Some company employees may collude with third parties who copy the document and steal the person’s data. Fraudsters can commit illegal actions, knowing only your ID number, because in some cases, the rest of the citizen’s data is not required.
Also, be careful on the Internet. Whether you use the Internet for work or yourself, you probably know that it is fraught with many dangers. Going online, you and your organization become targets for hackers and thieves who hunt for personal information, browser history, and payment data. In this case, browse the list of best VPNs and choose the one that suits you best. With a VPN, you will not leave any traces of your activity (search and visit history, cookies). Encryption of cookies is crucial for the safety of confidential information: personal, financial, and other data not intended for prying eyes that you indicate on the sites.
Choose information worth protecting
Companies want to protect the information that helps them earn money. Typically, companies protect product manufacturing technologies, supplier and customer lists, terms of transactions, financial statements, development plans. Such information can be included in trade secrets. However, there is a list of information that cannot be hidden, for example, information that allows you to do business: constituent documents, registration data, or information that the work of the company does not harm people: reports on environmental pollution, fire safety of the company, sanitary and epidemiological state of production, and others.
With the rise of technology, companies are now also concerned about protecting their online transactions. The security of online transactions has become increasingly important as more and more companies conduct their business online. Contract management software can play a critical role in ensuring the security of online transactions by providing a secure platform for managing contracts and legal documents. This includes contracts related to online transactions, such as vendor agreements, service level agreements, and other legal documents. With contract management software, companies can securely store and manage their contracts, ensuring that sensitive information related to online transactions is protected from unauthorized access.
Online transactions involve the exchange of sensitive information, such as financial and personal data, between parties over the internet. Companies must ensure that their online transactions are secure and protected from unauthorized access or fraud. Encryption, multi-factor authentication, and secure networks are just a few measures that companies can implement to protect their online transactions. However, effective contract management is also essential to ensuring the security and success of online transactions, and contract management software can help companies achieve this goal.
Protect sensitive information from employees and third-party partners
Having decided what confidential data you are going to protect, the company needs to go through four steps:
- Introduce a trade secret regime. This is the minimum information security measure. It will help explain to employees what they cannot share and the penalty if they divulge a trade secret. To introduce a trade secret regime, a company needs to develop a trade secret and confidentiality clause; Introduce it to employees against signature; Create conditions for keeping secret documents; Designate all valuable documentation with the “Trade secret” stamp; Maintain a log of access to confidential information.
If you do something wrong, you will no longer be able to fine or fire an employee who provides valuable information to competitors.
Conclude contracts for the creation of products. In many companies, employees develop something: write codes, articles, create music, come up with designs for websites and books. As a general rule, everything an employee makes during working hours and as part of official tasks belongs to the company. But nothing prevents the employee from saying that he did the project in his free time. In order not to be left without valuable developments when a person leaves the job, write technical specifications, conclude contracts for the creation of products, sign acts of acceptance and transfer of inventions, and draw up the transfer of exclusive rights to a work of service from the author to your company.
Protect the intellectual property of the company. You can protect objects of copyright: video and audio recordings, literary works, paintings, logos, databases, programs; Trademarks; Industrial property: inventions, industrial designs, utility models; Trade secrets (know-how): any information that has potential or actual commercial value.
If employees create intellectual property for the company, the main thing is the contract for the creation of the work. (We have already talked about it.) When working with contractors, it is also essential to prescribe that the rights to the product are transferred to you. If you order a logo from a design bureau, check that the contract specifies the transfer of ownership to the logo and the royalties. Also, the agreement must include the terms of reference and the act of acceptance and transfer.
Introduce a confidentiality regime with external partners. This will prevent partners from using your information in their work. You can ask the partner to stop doing it and pay compensation if this happens. For example, you gave a developer a password for your CRM, and he downloaded his customer base and sold it to competitors. If under the contract it was confidential information, you can sue.
Related:
Consumer Safety—Why Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Digital
Cybersecurity Tips for Healthcare Industry
Final word
You can protect any information that can profit your company if the law prohibits it. The offender can be fired, fined, or imprisoned for the illegal distribution of commercial information.