Empower Information Systems

Use passwords, encryption and common sense to keep documents private. Before computers arrived, getting your hands on important company reports and records required that you leave your desk and retrieve the papers from a locked file cabinet. Today’s digital workplace has made document access a lot simpler. An employee sitting in front of a PC—or a clever outsider—can find and view almost any company document with a few mouse clicks.

How do you protect sensitive documents from unauthorized viewing? Here are some strategies for keeping confidential documents confidential.

You can go a long way toward safeguarding documents with these simple practices and readily available technology tools:

1. Destroy hard copies.
If you print out confidential documents to circulate at meetings, collect them afterwards and shred them or ask the participants to do so.

2. Label documents.
Sometimes employees are unaware that documents contain confidential information and therefore don’t take precautions that they otherwise might. Instruct writers to use the header or footer areas to label the document ” confidential. ” They can also place a confidential watermark on a document. In Word 2003, select Background from the Format menu and then select Printed Watermark. Select Text watermark in the dialog box and choose CONFIDENTIAL from the drop-down list.

3. Use password protection.
You can restrict who can view a document by requiring that anyone opening the document know and enter a password you create and share with them. Documents, spreadsheets and presentations created with Microsoft Office 2003 all make this feature available. Simply open the file, select Options from the Tools menu, and click the Security tab. You can set passwords to both open and modify a document. While hackers have tools to discover passwords, passwords generally make it harder to view documents.

4. Install a firewall.
There are numerous good reasons to install a firewall and protecting important documents is definitely one of them. Firewalls can keep Internet intruders from accessing your computer files and viewing information. Windows XP Professional includes a software firewall that’s easy to set up.

5. Lock the doors.
To prevent someone from walking into your office and carrying away your computers and the documents located on the hard drivedon’t leave computer areas unattended and make sure your office doors remain locked after business hours. If you have a server, keep it in a special area that is locked at all times.

6. Advanced Document
Protection. More sophisticated solutions for protecting sensitive documents may mean you need to bring in a technology consultant. But if document security is a top priority you will want to look closely at these strategies.

• Encrypt your document files
  Encryption can protect documents in the event a business computer is stolenwhich is a very real liability for those traveling with laptops and other portable PCs. Encryption makes data unreadable except to those users who have the required ” key ” installed on their computer.
• Assign file permissions
  If your business uses a server, you can restrict who can view or change a document by assigning permissions. Permissions basically grant or deny access to a document (or any computer resource) as determined by the owner. Access rights and privileges can be applied to individual as well as groups of users. Common permissions allow a user to view or ” read ” a file or all the files in a folder and to change or ” write ” to a file or all files in a folder. Windows Small Businesses Server 2003 and other Windows server systems enable you to use permissions through the ” access control list. “
• Use Information Rights Management
  For a document protection system that integrates directly with Microsoft Office Professional 2003 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, consider the Information Rights Management (IRM) technology developed by Microsoft. With IRM, you can set file permissions at different levels and change the level for specific users and groups of users. You can also:
  • Restrict file printing to reduce the number of hard copies being produced 
  •  Limit the timeframe in which a file can be opened 
  •  Prevent forwarded files from being opened by an unauthorised recipient

7. Install and update antivirus software
Antivirus software is easy to install and, once running, constantly checks to prevent infections that could damage or destroy your data across your network. But know that hackers constantly write new viruses and that your antivirus software is effective only if it knows how to find the latest threats. So when you install antivirus software, set it to automatically download updates to catch new viruses. If you bought a new PC that included antivirus software for a trial period, sign-up when the free period expires to continue getting updates  or invest in another product.

8. Use software update tools
Software companies like Microsoft have free tools you can use to update your software so it’s more secure. For instance, it only requires a few mouse clicks to set Windows XP or Windows Small Business Server to use the Automatic Updates feature. This tool allows Windows to go online automatically to look for and install the latest updates to squelch security threats. Once you turn on Automatic Updates, it requires no further effort on your part. The software will update itself. The Microsoft Office System also has an automatic updating tool.

9. Install spyware protection
Install and regularly update anti-spyware software, which looks for secretive programs that try to collect your passwords and account numbers. Microsoft has a free Windows AntiSpyware (US link) program and a Malicious Software Removal Tool (US link) you can use to rid your PCs of unwanted software.

10. Install a software firewall
A firewall examines data passing into your network and discards it when it fails to meet certain criteria. Software firewalls, such as the Windows Firewall built into Windows XP Professional, protect only the computer they are running on, but provide a good back-up defense to hardware firewalls. It’s easy to turn on the Windows Firewall.

11. Install spam filtering software
Spam is unsolicited commercial e-mail that infiltrates inboxes and can force employees to waste time sorting it. While primarily a nuisance, junk e-mail does carry a risk when it contains attachments that, if opened, could release a virus. Also, some spam falls into the category of ” phishing, ” or tricking recipients into giving away passwords and other valuable information that could put a business at risk. Installing a spam filtering product, or configuring built-in Outlook 2003 junk e-mail filters, can help to significantly reduce spam.

12. Restrict equipment access
You can improve security by restricting physical access to your servers and networking equipment such as routers and switches. If possible, move these machines into a locked room and ensure only those designated to work on the equipment have keys. This minimises the chance that someone unqualified can tamper with your server or try to ” fix ” a problem.

13. Remove network access for former employees
Eliminate the ability of former employees to log onto your network. It is easy to delete their access and user privileges, but if you wait too long, you may give disgruntled ex-employees an opportunity to damage or steal files.