Reduce Liability Exposure and Ensure Regulatory Compliance for Your Business

In today’s complex world, managing and protecting data isn’t simple or easy. There are numerous threats to your IT infrastructure and multiple privacy laws and regulations your company must follow. Not having the right security plan increases your risk of data breaches, fines and lawsuits. Here are several tips for reducing your liability exposure and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Evaluate Your Network

If you’re not a security professional, it’s difficult to know what steps to take to secure your network. A professional network evaluation offers the perfect start to implementing or updating your data security strategy. Whether you’re starting from scratch or need to fortify your existing security, a team of experts works with you to identify points of weaknesses and risks in your network. After your evaluation, you receive a summary of IT security measures to take to reduce the risk of data breaches.

Train Your Employees

Data security is a team effort. This is why it’s important to educate your employees on security threats, compliance requirements, and risk mitigation strategies. Schedule routine training sessions to keep your staff informed about emerging threats and tactics for recognizing and preventing breaches.

Destroy Your Data

End-of-lifecycle management of IT devices is a must for organizations in the education, healthcare, legal, and financial sectors. If your company carelessly discards IT assets and electronic devices, it can be fined for failing to comply with privacy standards required by the following regulations:

• HIPAA
• FACTA
• SOX
• GLBA
• PCI

These federal laws require thorough destruction of personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) and documentation of data destruction processes. To prove your compliance, you must be able to produce a Certificate of Destruction documenting the serial numbers of your destroyed devices.

Implement a Breach Response Plan

When a data breach happens, you need to know what to do. Time is of the essence; the quicker you can respond and mitigate attacks, the faster your business can resume its normal operations. Partner with a data security provider who can monitor your system and help you respond to incidents effectively and efficiently.

Vet Your Vendor

Handing over your data to a service provider involves more than trust. Conducting due diligence on prospective vendor is a must. Get the answers to questions like:

• Is your data destruction partner NAID AAA Certified?
• Do they carry professional liability insurance that protects your business from data-related liabilities?
• Is there a quality assurance process that ensures your data is managed within a strict chain of custody at every stage of its lifecycle?

Get answers to these questions before entering a partnership with a data security vendor, and apply these best practices to reduce liability exposure and ensure regulatory compliance for your company.

Reclamere provides data security solutions to businesses in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States. If you have a data destruction question we haven’t answered here, please call us at 814-684-5505 or complete the form on this page. Your questions are important to us!