Data

Making difficult financial decisions is an inescapable part of running a modern-day business. That often requires making unwanted cuts and allocating funds towards aspects of your operations that might seem redundant at first. For instance, many small business owners don’t invest in cybersecurity because they believe that their company could not possibly become a target of a cyberattack. In reality, both small and large businesses tend to be targeted by cybercriminals at an equal rate, with small businesses sometimes being preferred targets due to their lack of cybersecurity measures.

Data breaches and security threats are not just an issue of finances – they are a matter of your professional reputation and your brand’s future. A single breach is enough to wipe you off the map and wreck your business reputation in a heartbeat. With that in mind, companies need to know what kind of preventative measures they can adopt and what are the most common causes of data breaches to plan for to protect their business. Here are a few examples that can help you build an enduring and secure business. 

Employee-caused mistakes 

Human error is the greatest source of security risks for any business. Although you can never get rid of it entirely, you can significantly reduce the risk with proper employee training and education. Even the best firewalls and malware protection programs cannot prevent an employee from falling for a social engineering scam or sharing their account information with people who don’t have appropriate security credentials.

In addition to creating airtight contracts that prohibit your employees from misusing data, you should also focus on providing them with regular security-focused training. That way, they’ll be able to implement the best precautions when handling sensitive data. Make this your top priority and a part of your onboarding process, too. By teaching them to properly manage their credentials, tools, digital equipment, and their passwords, you’ll create a much more secure environment for your business.

Lack of security infrastructure

If you store and share your data without taking proper precautions such as advanced encryption, password protection, and network security, you risk exposing it to third parties or even losing sensitive customer information. Along with well-educated employees, you also need a strong security infrastructure to ensure comprehensive computer network security on the premises and prevent data breaches.

This infrastructure should include a variety of strategies such as internet access management that will prevent your employees from stumbling upon an untrusted website and prevent inbound traffic that’s not secure. Plus, make sure your infrastructure includes a firewall solution that keeps your network safe and impenetrable – thus protecting your data from all entry points. 

Old software and lack of updates

Update popups and invitations to upgrade your existing software might seem annoying to an untrained eye, but they are actually one of the most useful features your software has. Why? Because these timely updates serve to provide security patches and ensure that you’re using the most up-to-date versions of your tools. Using current versions of software is important because outdated ones can jeopardize your data due to potential security vulnerabilities. Regular maintenance of all your devices and timely software updates are essential for keeping your business data secure. 

Poor password protection

Your employees may find password management difficult; and if they don’t work in IT, they may not understand just how important it is. It’s a distressingly common practice for employees to use and reuse poor passwords for all of their business accounts like project management, CRM software, analytics tools, etc. This alone is enough to wreak havoc on your entire security strategy as poor password practices can expose all of your sensitive and valuable data to cybercriminals. 

The simplest and most effective solution is to regularly train your employees on the latest preventative security measures and provide them with password managers that will help them handle their accounts more easily. 

Poor malware protection

Much like so many other forms of software, malware has become incredibly versatile and potent. The term encompasses a variety of different malicious programs that infiltrate your applications and systems. They’re usually downloaded unwittingly and can easily infiltrate a seemingly legitimate program or application and sneak their way into your databases. From ransomware programs, Trojans, all the way to adware, malware programs can be a nuisance, but also a severe threat to your organization – hence the need to treat them accordingly.

Inexperienced employees and non-IT staff might come across this type of program and unleash it on your data without ever realizing their mistake. Without traffic monitoring and restrictions, they could visit an untrustworthy or compromised website and expose the company systems to malware. 

As an additional matter, failing to back up your data regularly and securely means you risk losing it to ransomware for good.

Cybersecurity has been the main source of business problems for a while now. Still, with the right investments and prevention in mind, you can protect your organization both from external malicious attacks, and internal missteps and data misuse that are often unintentional. By eliminating the problems that can lead to a data breach, you can reduce the risk at the source and keep your company safe and your business, employee and customer data secure.

Most computers make it particularly easy for users to backup their data. Generally, all that is required is an external disk, which is relatively inexpensive. Both PC and Macintosh computers are equipped with built-in backup software that is easy to navigate, but you can also choose an IT support company for data protection and backup.

Data backup is also an essential factor due to the possibility of PC hard drives crashing or damaged, whether due to hardware problems, power outages, or other disastrous results. Data backup allows you to quickly recover any data lost up to the point of last backup (many backup programs run silently in the background of other programs, supporting changes to files created some time ago, so possibly Nothing is lost).

If a hard drive is broken and does not yet have backup software, you may be invited to run a data recovery program. It has the ability to overwrite and delete some of your original files. A data recovery specialist or company is better provided and has experience in building entire files and perhaps repairing hard drives or even porting all your files to a new disk.

Data recovery fees can be quite high, so you want to make sure that your data is backed up continuously. And your backup disk, usually any type of external disk, should be well shielded so that it is not lost or deleted.

Additional types of security software recommended for both disks are antivirus software designed to act as a shield against those without protection from harmful viruses, malware or spyware, and firewall protection. You can try to access your data with the appropriate permissions. Also consider data encryption, which encrypts your data so that no one can read or view it without the correct password. Different levels of data encryption software are available, depending on how sensitive your data is. If your business has any type of personal or confidential data, you will want to make sure that you have some way of adequate data security to guarantee that the data does not fall into the hands of the business.

Data Protection:

Information changes millions of times a day through file transfer, download, email, and transportable media such as CDs, DVDs, and USB drives. Data may be inadvertently delegated to others by selling used computer hard drives or external drives where the data was not deleted correctly. And sometimes, laptops and external media can be lost or deleted. Often this is nothing dangerous, but sometimes large amounts of personal data can be missed, posing a risk of identity theft or other breaches.

Data protection is not only necessary to protect the data in your system from cyberattacks or dangerous viruses, but also to ensure that if it goes into the wrong hands, it remains protected and cannot be seen.

Antivirus software, firewalls, and data encryption are the main types of data security available, as discussed earlier. Depending on how sensitive your data is, you may want to spend further in security software. Most data can be efficiently defended against many people who might get it by chance or theft, but against someone with more experience in computer software, especially with hackers and identity thieves, your data is just security cannot be protected with.

As the owner or administrator of a business, you should be informed that you are responsible for the data in your PC, and the loss or destruction of that data can result in severe penalties. It generally refers to breaches in which the personal data of customers and customers is compromised.

In addition to data breach laws, the provisions also cover standards that allow the use of data. Regulations may vary slightly from state to state, but generally include statements that allow personal information collected about consumers, customers, and customers to be kept confidential and legally processed. Certain types of data may be shared with other parties, if the person allows it, and a purpose must also be established for the use of the information. In addition, as data is collected, individuals should also be aware of where their information has been stored and processed, and for which entity and for what purpose.

These are some of the principles described by federal data privacy laws. Some exceptions to the rules apply, for example, you are not for a profit company, or the data is being handled only for publicity about your own business. It is recommended that you are aware of the specifics of the laws that apply to your business, in your state.

If your organization is large enough, you may want to select a specific person to act as a data controller – the one who is in charge of data security within the company, assuring that there is no loss or loss of data Is not.

Because mobile devices are capable of carrying large amounts of data and are often used to collect and store data for marketing, trading purposes, you may also want to ensure that they are protected in the event of lost or deleted data Huh. Each device will be replaced, but most have built-in security features such as passwords, and more advanced applications can be purchased that will encrypt data and add further security features.

By assuring your company’s data protection and backup regularly and secure from theft or damage, you can protect your business from potential problems in the future.

One of the most important concerns of business organizations is that of their data safety. Since almost all the organizations have some types of sensitive information that needs careful handling, it is crucial to adopt a secured data safety measure that can help to restrict any unauthorized access to the data and keep the hackers at bay. As the software industry moves forward and brings in latest technologies that emphasizes on common security issues when developing the new information system, LMS development is no exception.

Today, most of the academic organizations and corporates offering training sessions to keep their employees updated are using open source LMS for their course delivery and management. But is your data safe in your open source LMS development?  The question is open source technologies may not have all the essential features to protect your sensitive data. So, here is what you need to do?

Adopt the Defense in Depth Approach:

The best approach to attaining the best level of protection for your data is the Defense in Depth approach. This approach helps to leverage multiple security mechanisms and provide a layer of protection like the layers of the onion. Moodle, an open source LMS offers a 6 layer of protection and from the top layer, there is the SSL, which protects the data that is received or sent from your site, which is also followed by the SSO authentication, password security, site registration, role and permissions and finally the disaster and backup recovery.

Using the IP Blocker: 

These blockers prevent any unwanted IP addresses from accessing the data and the admin can manually add some IP addressed to the blocked or allowed lists. This helps to ensure that the known attackers cannot view the user data or the LMS content. But one issue is that the hackers or unauthorized person can always use another IP address and so it is important to use other preventive LMS security measures also.

Password Security: 

Besides authentication and site registration options, your password security is also another important part of your defense in depth strategy. Moodle administrators can do quite a bit to ensure that users have a strong password. They can configure the password policy by defining the number of characters the password should have, how many digits, upper or lowercase letters and etc. They can also define the number of times they can change the password and also force a user to log out after changing the password.

Anti Spam: 

Your LMS development company should add security features that prevent spam and has the potential to collect the user data and restrict any unauthorized access from entering the LMS. Some spams may include phishing, malware and even ransomware. As such, your online learners don’t have to worry about their crucial data being used by spammers or sending them potentially dangerous emails.

Roles and Permissions:

Authentication and registration and how the users can access your Moodle LMS is very important. How can the administrator control what the user can do or view on your site? it is here that user roles and permissions are so important. It is based on the roles and permissions that they are given that controls what the users can do on a Moodle LMS site.  The roles are actually a collection of bundled permissions that the users are assigned so that they have control on what they access, do and see on the site.

Summary:

LMS platforms are highly used by organizations to offer online courses, but maintaining the security of the data is equally important. Following some important tips can help to protect user data and keep your solution safe.

The customer is always right!

Therefore as the above-stage adage goes your business probably does (and certainly should) side with your customers- even if they stand out wrong.

This is because when any customer voices his/her displeasure; you usually have a good idea as to why they are right or wrong.

Now the problem lies with the fact that according to surveys done on customer experience most consumers primarily do not complain and secondarily if they are unhappy with any brand, odds are that they start looking elsewhere when shopping for their new requirements and needs.

Moreover, even if they are pleased and satisfied with your products and services, consumers usually refrain from offering customer feedbacks and instead quietly keep buying from their preferred brands and businesses.

Hence in this precarious environment to build a solid customer base, companies need to understand what the satisfied or dissatisfied customers might think long before they make any buying decisions for your offerings, and to do so you need to bring out the best out of them.

Now how do you do this apparently impossible task?

According to Michael Schrage (an MIT Research Fellow) as he urges to the readers of his popular book “What Do You Want Your Customer to Become,” businesses need to reevaluate and reconsider how to calculate CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) which can be done by adopting a CLM CRM software.

Furthermore Schrage writes that while viewing from the company’s perspective when brands treat their customers as value-creating partners, loyal consumers often provides their preferred brands good ideas, try their new offerings, share data with their brands, introduce their preferred brand to other customers and even evangelize for their brands on social media platforms, which in turn helps in reducing promotional costs incurred by the companies.

Therefore in this article, we have highlighted how businesses can overcome this challenging situation by increasing customer lifetime value by following these not-so-difficult steps, to engender an even deeper relationship with their customers and also accurately measure their levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction once they use business growth technology like CLM CRM software for revenue growth.

1. Understand What Your Customers Are Doing

If you are a vendor of a popular lead management software like Salesforce or any other Salesforce Alternative CRM platforms used by small businesses the software is probably helping many businesses to drive their initiatives and aiding their brands to create long term value for your customer’s customers.

But nevertheless, how can you be sure that you are a committed partner on their growth path and helping your customers to innovate and create winning products and services?

Now software usage analytics offer a unique window into how customers are using your offerings and lets you serve as a true partner of your customers but in a non-disruptive manner.
Moreover, the insights received from your customer’s usage of your offerings also lets you incessantly and quickly create useful features and fix frustrating functions in your product line.

However, just relying on the insights received from a handful of willing customers or user surveys can never provide these above-stated objectives unless you encompass insights that are required and can be gathered through usage statistics that you can only receive once you buy CRM and use CLM CRM software.

2. Stay In Touch With Useful Information

Always remain at the forefront of your customer’s minds by crafting enticing and engaging social media posts that provide bite-sized helpful and important tips or lead to larger blog content by creating educational posts following a regular cadence, aiding your consumers with instructive instructions that they are looking for.

Now, to do this the biggest challenge that most brands face is finding the pain-points and blog topics that resonate with their customers.

However again for this, the data and insights into your customer’s usage of your offerings can easily enable your teams to identify and prioritize topics that matter the most to the consumers of your brand.

This is because, by viewing which are the features and functionalities that are mostly used by your customers, you can develop unique content that ensures your customers are maximizing the benefits of those most used features of your offerings.
Similarly by viewing the features of your products and services that are used the least, by looking into the analytics found in CLM CRM software platforms, you can progressively educate your consumers about the valuable features in your offerings that your customers have not yet discovered and if needed update your product to make those features easy to find to the consumers of your offerings.

3. Treat Customer-Related Data With Care

B2B and even B2C consumers want to know how their data has been used. Hence privacy and security should be one of the topmost goals of your company.

Moreover, with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and other data privacy and protection measures that are tightly governing the use of the information received from your customers, businesses nowadays need to take complete responsibility for how they manage and use this information stored in their business growth technology and tools.

Therefore businesses must ensure proper clarity of the data ownership chain so that they can attest to the provenance of data by understanding what information they have and for how long they possess it in their CRM database, which in turn helps in providing insights about data management processes that aids in sharpening a businesses’ ability to follow regulations and adhere to the legal regulations of their land.

Conclusion

Hence in a gist gaining total insights once you buy CRM and use a CLM CRM software on how customers use the offerings they purchased from your brand, will not only help brands to manage their customers and let them use your products satisfactorily, but it also makes the customers recognize that they have a relationship worth keeping with your company- a commitment that has a lifetime value and therefore can help in your business growth.

8 Essential Benefits of Having a Data Catalog in a Data Drive World

Big data is all the talk in business these days, and it doesn’t look like it’s just a fad. An estimated 97.2% of companies are starting to invest in big data technology.

The question is, how can you take advantage of data for your business? After all, it’s hard to find a way to store and access all the information out there.

That’s where a data catalog comes into play. It’s your single point of reference when you need to make data-driven decisions for your business.

So what are the ways a data catalog can help? Keep reading to learn eight benefits of having a data catalog.

1. Convenience

Of all the benefits of a data catalog, convenience is the most significant benefit. After all, maintaining large amounts of data sources on your own is a lot of work.

With a data catalog, you can automate this process. Instead of having your staff input data manually, your data catalog can connect to your data source to import data on its own. This automation frees up time for your workforce to concentrate on more critical tasks.

You also have the convenience of having all your data in one place. Instead of putting together reports from different websites, you can log into your data catalog and immediately find what you’re looking for.

2. Security

Internet security is a hot topic today. While technology has made things more accessible, it’s also created more risk. The 2018 FBI internet crime report found that cybercrime is at an all-time high.

If your data isn’t protected, then you’re opening yourself up to trouble. A data catalog will help you protect your data.

Reputable data catalog providers work with government and regulatory agencies to ensure their technology will stand up to attacks. By trusting your data to them, you’ll be able to protect sensitive data.

With the regulatory changes happening today, this is more important than ever. Europe has the GDPR, and the United States has numerous healthcare and financial regulations that you need to follow. Working with a company can save you time and money that would be spent doing everything yourself.

3. Source Verification

Your data is only as good as where you get it from. If you have a lot of unknown sources in your data, how do you know if you can trust the reports you get from your catalog?

Luckily, you can track this with data catalogs. You can track the source of data and how old it is. You won’t be asking yourself if data is trustworthy and current anymore.

4. Human and Machine Collaboration

Information isn’t worth anything if you don’t know how to use it. This is where machine learning comes into play.

For example, what would your business decisions be like if you could better predict user behavior? Instead of guessing, track what your users do and store it in your data catalog.

Your AI algorithms will analyze this data and begin predicting how users will behave in the future. You can use this data to make better business decisions, which will increase the profitability of your company.

5. Easier Data Consumption

It isn’t easy to create a system that’s easy to use for people who aren’t good at tech. Traditionally, you would need a staff of people to fulfill the requests of users.

You can’t overlook the importance of a data catalog in this case. Instead of waiting for your support staff to generate the data and reports you need, you can log into a data catalog and search for what you’re looking for.

The first benefit is through the use of saved queries. If there is a search that comes up often, a data catalog can store it to pull the data up instantly. If you’re pulling up a complex query, this can save a lot of time.

The second is through search. In traditional databases, this involves writing database queries to find what you’re looking for. Most people don’t know how to do that.

A data catalog search engine can perform plain text searches to find the data you need. You won’t need to be technical to search for data.

6. Maintainability

Have you ever taken a close look at all the places you store data?

You have spreadsheets, databases, online services, and third-party providers. Keeping all of this maintained can be a nightmare if you have a lot of data.

Keeping your data maintained is more straightforward with a data catalog. Your data is kept in one place and can be automatically updated on its own.

7. Collaboration

Having all your data in different locations isn’t only hard to maintain. It also makes it harder to collaborate.

A central database isn’t quite as bad, but what about documents? If you have people that maintain their own spreadsheets, then it can be hard keeping everyone up to date with the latest data.

A data catalog solves this problem by putting all data in a central location. This means everyone has access to the latest information and won’t have to track down the person who maintains the data to get an update.

8. More Metadata

Metadata is essential if you want to find the data you’re looking for quickly. It’s what categorizes and describes your data.

The good thing is that as your data catalog grows, metadata will be created automatically. Much of this information is tags that never existed before.

Your new metadata allows you to look at your data in new ways. This will give you new insights that will help your business.

Your metadata can also help you filter information that you don’t need. If you have a staff member that finds a set of data useful and can’t use all of it, metadata can allow you to filter out what you don’t need.

You only need to do this once. Then every person in your organization can take advantage of it.

Invest in a Data Catalog Today

Data is everything for business today. If you don’t invest in technology that makes it easy to use, then you’re going to fall behind. A data catalog can give this to your business, so invest in setting one up today.

Data catalogs aren’t the only technology available to you. Keep browsing our blog to learn more about how technology can help your business.

VDR 101: Everything You Need to Know About Virtual Data Rooms

Have you heard of virtual data rooms? Also known as VDRs, these digital storage facilities are the logical next step in a paperless society. VDRs are a solution to the need for shared access to sensitive documents. They allow different groups and businesses to secure access through a sophisticated framework.

But how are they different than other content management systems? And do they really offer the security necessary to host highly-confidential materials?

Keep reading to learn all you need to know about virtual data rooms.

What is VDR?

The connected world is increasingly moving toward a digital-based, immediately-accessible information exchange. From emails to teleconferencing, anything that can be conducted online is. 

Virtual data rooms are an extension of this. There are many reasons businesses need to access sensitive data to work together.

Before, this would involve a secured, physical location. Only those with proper clearance could access all the relevant materials. That way, each party had access to the information they needed while limiting any breaches or leaks.

The drawback, of course, is that the need to get host a secure, third-party location required a lot of resources. There were budgetary demands, to say nothing of time and travel constraints.

VDRs take this concept and apply it to the digital world. They’re, as the name suggests, virtual locations that can host data while maintaining a high level of security.

How Do VDRs Work?

When businesses agree to work together, they go through a dataroom provider list and agree on one. They submit they’re lists of who has security clearance and can then begin uploading their data.

Authorized employees can then access the materials they need. This also keeping any conversations or questions within the VDR. Having all relevant dialogue within a single secure site has two benefits. It helps reduce redundancies while keeping everyone informed.

Tiered access can also be built into this model. This means that individuals can have access only to the materials they need, locking them out of data they’re not authorized for.

How Secure are They?

Absolute security can never be guaranteed. Anytime information is shared, there’s a chance that a breach can take place. It only takes one careless person to compromise a secure system.

To help mitigate any damage, VDRs incorporate many solutions to minimize leaks. All data can be watermarked, and every interaction can be monitored and logged. 
This means that if there is a leak of any kind, the administrators can track down the responsible party. This places a higher burden of responsibility on the users. 

Final Thoughts

Being able to offer a virtual space accessible worldwide has obvious benefits. That means that geography doesn’t have to be an obstacle between working agreements.

As well, the levels of security available with a VDR helps to limit any chance of a data breach. Being able to audit every instance and interaction means that any leak can be traced back to the person responsible.

Finally, having all relevant conversation housed in one virtual location means that all parties can stay up to date on any concerns or changes that occur. This limits the chance that one party falls behind due to old information.

For more articles like this one, visit our blog.

Increase Office Productivity and Protect Your Data! How to Take Care of Business with a Signal Blocker.

Hacking is one of the greatest threats to a business’s security — and integrity — today.

With 67% of businesses polled saying they’ve been a victim of a cyber crime, it’s not something you can afford to ignore.

Beyond hacking, employee negligence and accidental Internet exposure are the second and third most common forms of security breach.

So, what can you do?

Getting a signal blocker is one of the best ways to protect your company. Not only does it protect your data, it also increases employee productivity.

Not sure where to begin? We’re here to help.

Understanding The Methods

There are multiple ways your network might be at risk. After all, hackers have gotten craftier over the years and can continually find new ways to steal your data. You need to keep up with them.

It’s important you understand their methods when considering a signal blocker.

Common Types of Attacks

Brute Force Attack

An extremely common method, it works just like how it sounds. The hackers use “brute force” to barge their way into your network.

Your WiFi has a WiFi protected set up (WPS). The WPS has an 8-byte pin. All a hacker needs is a few hours and a couple thousand guesses to get in.

Public WiFi

A “Man in the Middle” type of attack is more common for people who travel and use public WiFi.

In this attack, hackers monitor your communications and activity while you’re in transit. Eventually, they can even intercept and change any communication you receive.

Use a Signal Blocker for Security

Obviously, having Internet access is as essential to an office as a dedicated phone system. By setting up a smart system, you can protect yourself and your data.

By limiting mobile access and blocking cell phone signals, you can lock down your data. You guarantee there’s limited and secure access and prevent the aforementioned hacking breaches.

Give your Productivity a Boost

Another benefit of locking down your signal? It will take care of one annoying issue: employees wasting time on their cell phones.

With the advent of smart phones, there’s so many more things that our cells do besides making and receiving calls. It’s easy to get sucked into texting, playing games, social media…the list goes on.

We don’t want to restrict our employee’s freedoms but we do need to make sure we’re not paying them to play around. A blocker takes away the distractions and keeps them focused.

Safeguard Your Data and Keep Your Employees on Track

You’ve got a lot of responsibilities and stress. Don’t make it harder on yourself by having to keep an eye on your sensitive data and your employees on your own.

If you lose the integrity of your data, you risk taking down your whole company. While you want to foster happiness in your employees, you don’t need them wasting time on their phones.

As you can see, a signal blocker is the answer to all of your problems. Plus, they’re easy to set up. Most are plug-and-play models, meaning they are able to jam a signal right out of the box.

Don’t let hackers steal your data – set up a signal jammer today.