Whether you are a business or an individual, you must have sensitive data stored on your laptop or smartphone. You must be storing your account statements, client details, sensitive information, or personal images on the device you are using.
Data leaks have become more common than ever, and it’s affecting businesses and individuals alike. By following several security tips, you can prevent data loss on your computer, tablet, or smartphone.
Let’s learn about these tips in this article and try to practice them in our day-to-day life.
Store Data on External Device
Keeping all your files on a single device can be tragic in the event of data loss as you may end up losing access to all the data. While you can keep your files in different drive partitions on your computer, it’s recommended that you back up your files on external storage devices.
Also, keep the external SSD in a safe place to prevent unauthorized access. Don’t forget to encrypt the files and devices for additional data security. Passwords protect all files that include sensitive and confidential business information.
Protect Video Content on the Computer
When managing your files on a computer, it’s important to protect all the data including apps, documents, downloaded data, and everything existing on the device. While you can protect the documents and apps by providing a strong password, what about the video files?
Did you know that you can download any Vimeo video on Mac computers in high-quality and then store it in Google Drive or physical media? This way, you can securely protect your files and retain access even in the event of data loss due to natural or manmade reasons.
Keep Business Data in Office Only
Another important way of protecting your office data is to restrict it to the office boundaries. The hard drives, flash drives, and other storage devices that store business-related files and information must never leave the office.
This is one feasible way to keep all your data safe without doing anything extra. At the office, you are not the only person responsible for the safety of all the files. It’s a collective responsibility that all the colleagues share, so you are not answerable to anyone.
Enable Full Disk Encryption
Regardless of the operating system or the computer you are using for Storing all your important files, you can encrypt the hard drive for better data security. Full disk encryption prevents your data from slipping into the wrong hands, even if the drive is lost or stolen.
On Windows computers, use BitLocker to encrypt the physical hard drive installed into your computer. If you are using a Mac, you can encrypt the hard drive or solid-state drive using the FileVault feature offered by Apple at no extra cost.
Prevent Sharing Unencrypted Data
When sharing data over the internet, it is important that you keep track of the encrypted and unencrypted files. Unencrypted data should never be shared over the web, no matter how secure your connection is.
If you need to send a file immediately to another user, make sure that it’s password protected. After sending the file, you can share the password information with the users over another channel so that the file can be accessed.
Save Files as PDF
Almost everyone knows that PDF is one of the highly-secured file formats that prevent data from unauthorized access. PDF is a common way to share business information and is widely used by startups as well as large enterprises for data transmission.
Although it’s a secure way to share data, don’t forget to password-protect all your sensitive PDF files, particularly when it includes business data or personal information. Use a combination of alphabets, numbers, and special characters as passwords.
Declutter Your Laptop & Phone
Not to mention, your computer stores hundreds of gigabytes of data, most of which are duplicate images or duplicate documents. The same applies to tablets and smartphones. Organizing these devices on a weekly or monthly basis can improve data security and safety.
Detect and remove files that are no longer needed but consuming space on the drive. Delete them from the computer as well as the Recycle Bin. You can also use duplicate detector software to spot duplicate files and redundant data.
The Conclusion
Data storage and management are important tasks that demand time and a proper strategy for better file organization. All the data management tips mentioned in the article are evergreen tricks that will never go outdated.
Whether you are using Windows or macOS, you can try these tips for storing and managing files on your computer. Make sure to back up your data before editing or erasing any file. Moving data to the Cloud will enable you to view your files from anywhere, anytime.