It’s critical for even small companies to make sure they’re protecting personal and business data on the road. While large companies typically have security specialists and IT policies to manage potential data security risks, most small businesses are on their own when it comes to figuring out how to ensure the security of data when employees are on the road. At Upside Research, we have a few key recommendations to help small businesses secure their data, including:
– Start with the basics. Make sure you’re using passwords (and reasonably secure ones that mix numbers and letters) for any laptop logins.
– Another alternative is to put all your data on a small, USB memory drive for both portability and security. That way, it doesn’t matter if your laptop is stolen or damaged, you data will be fine as long as you have the USB memory device. Many of these devices also allow users to encrypt the data, providing good security.
– Users of Microsoft’s Windows Vista also have great options when it comes to security, such as BitLocker. BitLocker is drive-level encryption, which allows a user to encrypt (or secure) all the data on their hard drive, so that even if it’s lost or hacked, other people will not be able to read any of the files or data.
– Another good alternative for security data on laptops is to use a program like TrueCrypt, which can easily encrypt files or folders. TrueCrypt is free and works on Windows XP, Vista and other operating systems.
