Your Company’s Digital Assets are probably worth the same or more than the physical assets. Hence, it is important to safeguard them in the best possible way.
Your business might own multiple tangible physical assets such as vehicles, buildings, supplies and equipment. You might be protecting these assets by obtaining and securing umbrella insurances, subcontracting agreements, following various security protocols and including proper lease contracts. But what about protecting your intangible Digital Assets?
Your company’s Digital Assets are probably worth the same or more than the physical assets!
All important online company records are considered as Digital Assets. This includes business photographs, websites and blogs, business applications, mailing lists, web domains, subscriptions, ecommerce store accounts and intellectual property like trademarks, copyrights and patents. Business owners are vulnerable to unplanned tragedies and calamities. Hence, it is advisable to secure and take control of the Digital Assets of your company.
7 Steps to protect your Company’s Digital Assets:
Step 1: Use a Digital Asset Management Tool.
Use a Digital Asset Management Tool such as CLOCR to list and secure all your intangible Digital Assets. CLOCR’s patent-pending security guarantees utmost safety and security to your company’s Digital Assets. Make a list of your company’s Digital Assets, their valuations and ownership status. Remember, anything you own on your company’s business server and consider it to be valuable is a Digital Asset.
Step 2: Limit access to your Company’s Important Resources.
Not all employees make use of all your resources and data. Based on each employee’s requirement, limit their access to your company’s resources and data.
Set permissions to applications so that you know when employees are looking at data. You can also set documents to read-only modes thus preventing unauthorized office personnel from modifying the contents of your company’s important dataC
Step 3: Establish Ownership and Value
Work with a legal counsel to determine if your company’s Digital Assets have been legally established and evaluated. This includes trademarking, copywriting and patenting your company’s Digital Assets. You will not be able to fully protect your company’s Digital Assets unless they are legally established and evaluated.
A company’s value changes with time, number of clients, etc. This means, you will have to evaluate your intangible assets once in two or three years; registering and establishing your ownership forms the basis of this plan.
Step 4: Plan for the Future
What happens to your company’s Digital Assets if you pass away? Who will gain ownership of your assets? Digital Assets owned by a partnership need to be accounted for in a partnership agreement. Make sure to include a clause stating your decision on the company’s Digital Assets in case of death. If you own a family-run or small business, include these assets in your Estate Plan.
Step 5: Data Security
Of late, many companies have been targeted by hackers and fraudsters. Hackers always look for a loophole or weakness in a company’s security system and exploit them. Ensure your operating systems, licensed softwares and cloud-based servers are up-to-date with the latest antivirus softwares.
Educate your employees on two-step authentication and other security measures and make use of these features on a regular basis. Also, make sure your employees know of phishing tactics so that they are aware of any unauthorized access to your company’s resources as well as fake emails and scams.
Secure your company’s Wi-Fi. Make sure the routers are placed in a secure location with minimal access (only authorized personnel can access your routers), change passwords often, enable firewalls and consult network security specialists to manage your company’s online networks.
Step 6: Back-up your Data Regularly.
Make sure to take back-ups of your company’s important digital data regularly. Though you have taken all the necessary security precautions, there might come a time (we hope not!) when the server might become inaccessible – possibly due to physical damage or hacking. Hence, it is always recommended to keep a copy of your data and regularly update it.
Step 7: Invest in Cyber Insurance
Like how you insure physical assets of your company, you need to insure Digital Assets too. With a considerable increase in cyber crimes, Cyber Insurance plays a major role in protecting a company’s Digital Assets. In case of hacking or leak of company data, Cyber Insurance covers the cost of investigation and business loss.
The above points might seem trivial but a company’s Digital Assets are as (or more) important than its physical assets. If you are looking for a simple yet highly secure Digital Vault to store your company’s Digital Assets, we suggest you take a look at our Digital Vault and secure your company’s Digital Assets through our patent-pending security system.
