4 Ways to Ensure Secure Business Communications

Your business is, well, your business, and quite frankly no one else’s, so finding ways to keep your business communications secure is vital to maintaining a successful operation. Why? Without streamlined, secure communications your competitors are more likely to unearth your secrets to success and use them against you. Even more likely, one of your work-hands might become a leak in your system unknowingly. No one is infallible; luckily your business communications can be by implementing one or all the following four ways to ensure secure business communications.

Company Newsletters

A company newsletter is one of the most efficient ways to keep all of your employees on the same page about important company issues. When an employee enters their login information and reads their first couple emails, they’ll be greeted with a newsletter that keeps them abreast of various happenings within the company. Newsletters help develop a positive corporate culture. An employee who takes pride in the company he or she works for is more likely to be attentive in handling sensitive information residing on the server.

Singular Storage

Online storage options like Dropbox or Google Now make organizing and storing your company’s files easier than ever. These services have taken exhaustive security measures combined with a high degree of permission-based user-control to keep your data safe. They offer encryption for files and password protection for links, ensuring only the right pair of eyes sees a document every time.

Standardize Encryption

Image via Flickr by Kelly Schott

You need to protect your business communications. Email is a company’s primary method of communication, but it’s also an easy target for those looking to steal company information. Require the use of end-to-end encryption tools for all communications hosted on company servers. Server-side encryption software automatically encrypts an email before it leaves your network. If you work in healthcare, it is important to follow the requirements for HIPAA compliance. HIPAA mandates the methods and levels of encryption accepted for protecting patient data. Encryption use was once in the sole domain of tech experts and analysts, now it is available to everyone. Protect your company by using it.

Perishable Documents

You only need to read most documents once and then discard them, so why let them sit around when you’re done with them? Setting expiration dates on documents sent over company servers helps protect your company from information leaks and scandals. Expiration dates can be set directly from your email application on most services. Consider how many public officials have been scrutinized over an email that is years old, but brought to the public’s view. Don’t let this happen to you. Documents shared via Dropbox can be given expiration dates and protected by passwords, reinforcing the idea that online storage is arguably more secure than traditional methods of company information storage.

Your business is like a machine, when one part has trouble communicating with another, it’s bound to result in mechanical failure. Follow these four tips to help secure business communications and take your company to the next level of success.