Importance of cybersecurity in document management

Security in document management is of enormous importance in your business. If your company stores documents on a regular basis, it is essential that you have a storage system that provides security. An organization can have many types of documents: sales reports, inventories, invoices, contracts, working documents, etc. This is the documentary heritage of your business and if it were to be lost, it would undoubtedly be a problem at the operational level.

Nowadays, companies need to be especially careful with the document management. Often, documents are sent by e-mail or cloud storage tools are used, without taking care of where, when and to whom permission is being granted to access such data.

In today’s post we would like you to understand the importance of security in document management, because if you don’t have backup copies of your documents, your business risks losing its documentation.

What is document management?

Companies often work with a wide variety of documents. Nowadays, these documents are rarely printed, since digitization makes it possible to work with them and use them on any computer. The fact that we do not have a physical archive of our documents does not mean, however, that we should not take care of our data.

The lack of proper document management can result in:

• We do not find documents when we need them.
• Our activity is affected by clutter.
• The data stored in our documents end up in the wrong hands.
• We completely lose the information in case of a problem with our computer.

There are different typical mistakes that are made in document management in companies. Let’s see what aspects you should take into account to avoid making them.

Common security mistakes in document management.

There are several mistakes that can lead to risky situations in the management of our documents. Let’s see what they are.

1. Storing data on multiple computers

When you store data haphazardly on multiple computers, your business can’t run smoothly at the operational level. To view one contract you need to connect to one computer and to view another you need to connect to another.

Storing data on multiple computers increases the risks of losing information. In addition, it becomes very difficult to work if you cannot locate where the document you need is at any given moment.

2. Store data on a single computer

There is also a risk associated with storing all documents on a single computer. If that computer suffers a mishap, such as being inaccessible due to ransomware, you lose the ability to access the information.

In case you have malware, you could even lose the documents stored on that system. Therefore, having all your documents on a single computer increases the risks to your document security. In addition, it makes it difficult for different employees to access the information they need to work, since unless you have your computers on a network, you would have to connect to that computer to access the documents.

3. Not making backup copies of documents.

The third most important mistake that is often made is not having backup copies of documents. This means that in the event of any circumstance that causes you to lose your documents, you will not be able to restore them and you will lose that information.

Think that your company’s documents may be stored in multiple places, such as email or even on paper. But to be able to recover another one could mean hours and hours of work.

4. Sending important documents by email or storage systems

Your company having documents scattered in emails and storage systems can be a problem. Think about changing your email provider. You should check that you don’t lose any documents that you have in your multiple e-mails.

In the case of cloud storage systems, these are not always 100% compliant with GDPR requirements. It is possible that if your documents contain personal data of third parties, but they have not given you their consent to store them on such platforms, you are committing a breach, which in case of any security problem could affect your business.

5. Backing up your documents, but not backing them up correctly.

For example, you make your backups using a USB memory stick, with the risk that it may get damaged and you may lose everything. Or worse, you use this type of storage device to save documents, but you don’t do it in an automated way. Then, in case of any eventuality, it is possible that your last copy is from a long time ago and you will not be able to recover your document data.