For Your Eyes Only. Top Secret. Classified. While such titles may conjure up images of cloak-and-dagger espionage, they’re also accurate in describing a large number of documents that exist within everyday businesses. There are trade secrets that can damage a company’s competitive status in its market. There is also a plethora of personal employee information that corporations are bound to protect, both by regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), and by the inherent trust that a business maintains with employees and customers.
What You Can Do
The protection of confidential and private information requires a company to address the duality of these documents in electronic and print formats. Electronic information security is largely addressed through access protocols and permissions at a network and a file level. In printed form, however, these measures are left behind, leaving the information – and the organization – exposed to danger. It’s the responsibility of every organization to guard against these threats by:
Getting Physical with Security
Two of the more basic, yet underutilized, steps of document security are low-tech but highly effective: the file cabinet and the paper shredder. By better controlling printed materials throughout their life cycle, companies can minimize the risk of a damaging security breach.
Printing Less, Protecting More
By encouraging less printing, even for environmental or cost reasons, companies can indirectly improve their security posture. A more overt method is to regulate what should and should not be printed at a corporate policy level. Finally, there are ways to prevent the printing of documents at a computer or printer through permission-based printing.
Incorporate Print Security
There are myriad technologies available - like secure, copy-proof papers and special inks - to protect printed materials, though they are sometimes impractical for daily use across an enterprise. And even then, sensitive information is often still visible on the original document, making it no more secure. New technologies that are able to hide sensitive data through the use of special algorithms enable the protection of confidential data with the use of standard office printers, papers and inks.
How We Help
For companies looking to protect their confidential and personal printed materials, AuthentiGuard On-Demand provides state-of-the-art data encryption that is simple to generate and verify. AuthentiGuard On-Demand not only provides the ability to hide sensitive data, but it also offers the copy-proof capabilities of costly paper- or ink-based product in one total solution. If you’re worried about your valuable corporate information or employee data falling into the wrong hands, AuthentiGuard On-Demand can be the answer to your security and compliance needs.