Document and security compliance is a practice that should be occurring within each and every organization. It encompasses the policies, procedures and solutions to protect documents from unauthorized use, improper modifications and loss of data while also keeping track of that data and protecting client information. For many organizations, it also helps ensure they’re following the relevant compliance regulations and standards for protected information associated with clients, patients or vendors.
“This is about organizations understanding the information that’s on their documents and putting together the proper policies and procedures to protect that information,” says Curtis Verhoff, Advanced Solutions Manager at Blue Technologies, Inc. “In many cases, technology can help implement those document and security policies and procedures.”
Smart Business spoke with Verhoff about document and security compliance and how it insulates companies from risk.
Why is document and security compliance important?
A document and security compliance system is designed to protect digital and hard copy information, applying the appropriate measures for all aspects of a documents life cycle — from the production of a document to the creation of copies for printing and storing. These measures are designed to keep the information on those documents secure and away from anyone who shouldn’t be seeing them.
Among the risks document and security compliance policies and procedures seek to protect against are unauthorized access and data breaches. When the documents have financial or personal identification information or trade secrets, this system can prevent misuse or malicious attacks from ransomware and phishing, as well as personal theft of the data from internal data breaches.
If good document security or compliance measures are not put into play, it could lead to operational disruptions, reputational damage, financial losses and fines for noncompliance. These systems also look to guard against issues that can arise from human error.
What does this look like in practice?
Document and security compliance is a multi-tiered approach that provides security to guard against outside and internal threats to misuse organizational information, whether that be via printing, emailing, viewing, and whether it’s physical or digital. That’s extended to additional measures to protect the devices that are being used to make copies, whether printed or scanned. There is also an emphasis on the storage procedures for those documents, and in some cases mitigating risk by eliminating paper documents as much as possible and using a secured digital repository to store versions that can only be retrieved and viewed by those with permission.
In addition to working on technology solutions for document and security compliance, some service providers have the capability to perform a discovery audit. These are designed to learn how and what the organization currently is doing and then find a solution to address gaps. That could mean solutions around the existing technology — their network and computers — and how those are used to access and deal with the information. After a risk assessment, there could be IT technology that’s put into place to better prevent malicious attacks, phishing or improper use by internal end users. Also to be considered in the organization’s document management are the long-term retention policies, as well as the securities to regulate which end users can access that information.
Who should be concerned with document security and compliance?
All organizations, regardless of the size and type, should place a priority on document security and compliance. It’s in their best interest to take a serious look at the measures they can take to protect the information that’s on the documents they produce every day, whether they’re paper-based or digital. It’s a serious issue because of the increasingly sophisticated breaches that are occurring in the marketplace. It’s imperative to take measures to protect that data. At a minimum, organizations need to ask themselves what they are doing, and how they can do it better. ●
INSIGHTS Technology is brought to you by Blue Technologies, Inc.
