Data protection in your workshop: Have you heard of the clean desk policy?

Can you imagine that a news channel is filming a report in an office and they happen to focus on a monitor with a Post-it with sensitive data written on it? What if we tell you that the sensitive data is a password? Believe it or not, this has already happened, and more than once!

Be very careful with the management of your data and sensitive information. And we are not just talking about passwords. We are also talking about personal data, addresses, banking information, both of the workshop staff and of your customers. 

What do we recommend?

• Do not save this type of data on your computer desktop.
• Do not use your desk to store or stack documents.
• Turn off your computer at the end of your working day and lock it whenever you are away from it.
• Use a password manager to store your passwords. Never in Post-it notes!
• What if I have to keep sensitive information on paper? Always keep it under lock.
• Introduce paper shredders to your office if you don’t already have them.
• If you write sensitive information on a whiteboard during a meeting, don’t forget to erase it when you are done.
• And if you also have such information stored on a portable USB device, keep it locked up.

And remember…

Even if you work from home you should apply the same policy to maintain data integrity and confidentiality.

We hope these recommendations will help you to protect the security of your and your customers’ data.