Kind of! Here are Some Summertime Safety Tips.
Summertime is here. For many of us, that means a trip or vacation is probably coming up soon.
If you plan to take your work laptop, phone, or tablet on your trip, remember: company-issued laptops, phones, and devices will almost surely have sensitive data on them. And don’t forget, PERSONAL devices like tablets or cell phones that connect to your work’s email server will likely have sensitive (personal AND company) data on them too.
Bottom line: if your work or personal device is lost or stolen, confidential financial, HR, or customer data could be compromised. Protect yourself from spoiling the vacay you deserve! Take a few precautionary steps BEFORE you go to make sure your device, and the company’s data, stays safe this summer.
Summertime Travel and Device Safety.
Which Level of Protection Is Best For You?
SPF 15 — Minimum protection for laptops.
Make sure the laptop requires a password to get into the operating system. This is the minimum required for anyone who uses their device to email business associates or has data stored locally. This is OK protection, but you still run the risk of getting burned.
SPF 30 — Better protection.
Laptops: Encrypt the hard drive on your laptop. This ensures that if the hard drive is removed from a stolen or lost laptop, the data cannot be accessed. Microsoft’s BitLocker service is available for Windows 8 Pro and Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate versions.
Phones & tablets: Configure the device to require a PIN to be entered after it has been idle for a period of time and/or every time you access the device.
USB drives & external hard drives: Don’t forget to protect these devices with password and data encryption protection too!
SPF 50 — BEST protection.
Does your device hold the secrets to the universe? Or maybe your company’s financial and employee information? No matter how sensitive the data, we believe it’s better to be safe than sorry. We recommend that all devices used to access company data incorporate this level of protection. At minimum, devices in use by company management should strongly consider this level of protection.
Laptops: Consider loading software on the laptop that allows you to remotely locate it or wipe the device remotely. This is important if you want to try and recover the laptop and if you want to be sure that data will not be compromised.
Phones & tablets: Similar to your laptop, make sure you know the process to remotely wipe your phone or tablet device if it is lost or stolen.
As always, if you have any questions about computer safety, don’t hesitate to contact us.
We wish you a happy and SAFE, summer season!