How Your Small Business May Be At Risk Unless You Have A Security and Recovery Plan

Don't think your small business is at risk? Think again. Whether you realize it or not, your business holds valuable information and assets that might not be safe right now. Your business is likely to contain confidential customer information, proprietary business knowledge or just insider knowledge that you would not want to expose to criminals or competitors. Loss of this information can have a devastating effect on your business. While business insurance is an important part of your protection, it cannot protect customers from identity theft or your business from unscrupulous employees or competitors. No matter how big or small, your business needs to have a safety and recovery plan that determines what risks you have, helps protect against those risks and the risks you may experience. Set out plans for handling the most likely types of losses. Your plan should also take into account both the 'physical' and 'virtual' aspects of your business. Start by considering the types of risks that could leave your business vulnerable. What if your business information is lost or stolen? Do you have customer files or records, tax receipts, bank statements, business plans, customer work products? Next, consider the physical aspects of your business that may be unsafe. Do you have unique office equipment, inventory, computers or business specific equipment? Finally, look at how you do business. Do you rely on technology, the Internet, or employees with unique skills? Does your business model rely on repeatable processes that are unique to your business? Now, consider what will happen to your business if these parts of your business are lost, destroyed or stolen. Can you continue operations if you lose your client files? Can you be prosecuted by customers if your personal information is exposed? Can you become a target of negative publicity? Could your competitors benefit from having access to the information? What if you lost email access for a day? What if that key employee suddenly left for another job? What if your office space caught fire or flooded? Your safety and recovery plan should put in place safeguards and policies and procedures to prevent some of these risks and their potential to negatively affect your business. It is relatively easy to control physical access to buildings, although most small businesses have little more than a lock on the front door. Should you consider locking the file drawer? Is inventory controlled? Does every employee have access to things that are not part of their job? Can a disgruntled or fired employee return to the workstation after hours with a spare key copy? Your plan should consider how to secure the 'virtual' parts of your business as well. Do you have any important files backed up? Do you have passwords, account numbers and other 'keys' safely stored? Does your computer have virus and firewall protection and is it up-to-date? Do you have Internet and email usage policies in place to protect your employees from harassment allegations? What about remote workers or workers who 'work from home'? In today's highly mobile environment, with important business information now easily accessible beyond your physical control? Do your employees know how to protect laptops, cell phones, flash drives or even print-outs of business information when they leave your workspace? What if a laptop is stolen from an employee's car or home or hotel room? Do you have a backup of the data that was on the laptop? What if your employees are accessing your information over coffee shop Wi-Fi? How do you know your customers and business are safe? Finally, your safety and recovery plan should consider how you will handle the most potential loss. For example, if the computer that holds all of your sales information crashes, you probably should have a plan to quickly restore that information from a backup. Where is the backup tape or disc kept? Who has access to it and more importantly, who knows how to restore the backup? If your office is flooded, how quickly can you move? Can some employees work from home or other remote locations temporarily? If customer information is stolen, is there any way for you to contact them? Most small business owners will make the first move like purchasing insurance and installing front door locks. Unfortunately, few people take the time to really understand the potential risks of their business. Even the best plan obviously won't protect against all disasters, but once it happens it can certainly reduce the impact on your business. Aubrey Jones Riverbank Consulting, Inc. is the chairman and founder of.