How much Non-Public Personal Information do you keep about your customers and employees? They could be account numbers, credit card numbers, email addresses, bank account information, birth dates, Social Security Numbers and other sensitive information.
Some estimates place the cost to a business losing private sensitive information at over $200 per item. Does not sound like much does it. If you have 20 employees and someone steals their Social Security Numbers, the cost could be $4,000. Plus lost productivity while each employee spends company time to fix the problem. Are going to say they cannot use company time? You lost it. You have 1,000 customers who pay by credit card. All their credit card information is stolen. Now the cost is $200,000. How many of those customers will now stop doing business with you? Depending on how you handle the problem, it could be 60%. Thousands of prospective customers will read about the breach in the newspaper, on Twitter, Facebook and Yelp. We have not even looked at lawsuits, government fines and attorney fees.
Safeguarding Private Sensitive Information is good business.
You need to know what information you gather, why you need it and who has access to it. Only keep the information you really need to run your business. Protect both the digital and the paper information. Properly destroy any information you no longer need. Create a response plan for security breaches.
Your customers and employees are assets. Their information are assets. Don’t let a thief turn them into a liability.
