Does your business deal with documents that you share with team members and employees?
Are you ever worried that these confidential documents might get into the wrong hands? Data security breaches are becoming more common and you have to find a way to protect your company’s documents.
This quick guide will show you the most common document security mistakes that you should avoid. This will keep your documents safe from potential hacking.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. You Can Create a PDF From Scratch?
One of the best ways to protect a PDF from potential data breaches is to create one from scratch. Rather than creating a Word document and then saving it as a PDF, you can use programming to create a PDF with your desired content.
You can look online for guides on the process to create PDFs. For example, C# Create PDF File Programmatically is one of the best ways to create a PDF using the C# language.
2. What Password?
You shouldn’t share your company’s documents without having password protection. Using your computer’s file management services you can add a password to each PDF.
You can also share a PDF via a cloud storage drive. The cloud storage platform will let you create a password, which you can change at any time.
You should change the password at least once per month. Make sure you also research how to create a difficult password.
3. You Don’t Lock Your Folders?
If you keep your documents in a folder, then you must protect the folder as well! Managing business documents also includes keeping the folders away from prying eyes.
If you have digital documents on a hard drive or cloud storage drive, make sure you add password protection to the folders. Once again, you should change this password at least once per month.
You can also add a “lock” feature to these folders. This means that you can’t even see what’s in the folder until you enter a password.
4. Can I Protect My Physical Documents?
Another big mistake that companies make is not taking enough care to protect your physical documents.
Make sure you always keep your physical documents in zipped folders. These folders should be kept in a locked cabinet or safe.
When you no longer need these documents you should shred or burn them. If choosing the former, you want to shred a document several times so that it can’t get re-assembled.
You might even want to soak the shredded document in water before throwing it away. This washes away the ink so nothing remains legible.
Avoid These Document Security Mistakes
If you avoid these document security mistakes, then you’ll have no problem protecting your documents from prying eyes.
You want to create your PDF documents from scratch. This helps you insert code to protect it from potential hacking.
You must also add password protection to your digital documents and your folders. Follow our best practices for protecting your physical documents and destroying them properly when needed.
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