Your Small Business May Be At Risk If You Don't Have A Security and Recovery Plan, How You Protect it.

Do you not think that your small business is at risk?think again, whether you understand it or not, your business has valuable information and assets that may not be currently secure. Your business may contain confidential customer information, business information or internal information that you do not wish to be exposed to criminals or competitors, loss of this information can have a negative impact on your business, while business insurance is an important part of your protection, you cannot protect customers from the theft of your identity or business from dishonest employees or competitors, no matter how big or small, your business needs to have a security system in place to determine what risks you have, which helps to protect you from those risks and set up existing systems to deal with the types of losses that you most likely have, your plan should consider both the 'physical' and 'practical' aspects of your business, start by considering the types of risks your business may pose, what if your business information is lost or stolen? Do you have customer files or records, tax receipts, bank statements, business plans, customer service products? Next, consider the visible features of your business that may be at risk. Do you have a variety of office equipment, inventory, computers or some commercial tools? Finally, look at how you do business, do you rely on technology, the internet or employees with different skills? Does your business model depend on different processes of your business? Now, think about what would happen to your business if these parts of your business were lost, destroyed or stolen, can you continue working if you have lost your client files? Can you sue customers if their personal information is disclosed? Can you become a victim of malicious gossip? Would your competitors benefit from accessing information? What if you lost email access for one day? What if that vital worker suddenly left for another job? What if your office space is new or flooded? Your safety and recovery plan should set out precautions and policies and procedures to prevent some of these risks and the potential for negative impact on your business. Physical access to buildings is easy to control even though most small businesses have only a small lock on the front door, should you consider locking file drawers? Is inventory controlled? Is every employee able to access, even things that are not part of their job? Can any dissatisfied or dismissed employee return to work after hours with an additional copy of the key? Your plan should consider how to protect the 'visible' parts of your business as well. Do you have backups of any important files? Do you have passwords, account numbers and other secure 'keys'? Do your computers have virus protection and firewall and are they up to date? Do you have policies for using the Internet and email to protect your employees from harassment forms? What about remote workers or employees ‘going home with work?’ In today’s leading environment, the important business information can now be easily accessed without your physical control? Are your employees able to protect laptops, cell phones, flash drives or even print business information once they leave your workplace? What if the laptop is stolen from an employee's car or home or hotel? Do you have a backup copy of your computer data? What if your employees access your information at a Wi-Fi coffee shop? How do you know if your clients and business are safe? Lastly, your safety and access plan should consider how you can deal with the most likely losses. For example, if a computer with all your marketing information crashes, you should have a plan to quickly restore that information from a backup copy, where is the backup tape or disk? Who has access to it and most importantly, who knows how to restore a backup copy? If your office is flooded, how quickly can you move? Can other employees work from home or away from home for a while? If customer information is stolen, do you have a way to contact them? Most small business owners have probably taken the first step, such as buying insurance and locking the front door, unfortunately, few people take the time to really understand the potential risks to their business, taking the time now to compile at least one informal plan will go a long way in the event of a real disaster or other loss. Even the best planning can not protect you from all disasters but can certainly reduce the impact on your business.