Data is a crucial asset for any company. When a loss or breach occurs, it could stop operations and harm your reputation. It’s also likely to result in legal liability as most companies today are subject to a variety of privacy regulations and standards.

To set up your data protection program, you need to first develop a plan of action that is aligned with your company’s security policy. This will allow you to define clear expectations and guidelines for your employees when it comes to handling sensitive data from its creation until its storage or deletion.

It’s important to know what types of data you have and how sensitive they ought to be classified. This enables you to implement data governance measures such as user-based access, automatic masking, and tracking of data lineage.

Also, you should create a process to respond to government requests for information. Ideally, it should be handled by a lawyer to ensure the response is accurate and in compliance with the relevant laws on data protection.

Instruct all employees about your company’s policies and procedures regarding the protection of data. Particularly, those who work from home or in other locations offsite. For instance, explain to employees that it’s against the company policy to share passwords with others or post them in the vicinity of their workstations. They should also be warned beware of identity thieves who may call pretending to be from IT in order to take their data. Also, remind them to independently check any emails asking for confidential information that seems to come from a person they check my site know at the office.