8 Common Business Data Management Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Keeping your business data secure is vital to keeping your business alive, and in a world where even big-name companies like LinkedIn get hit with data breaches, it’s time to build up your defenses. Without them, you risk leaving your business up to financial ruin and customer mistrust. But not everyone knows the simples steps you can take to get secure without hiring a whole IT crew.

So what are these steps?

Well, we’re glad you asked. With this list of the 8 common business data management mistakes and how to avoid them, you can reinforce your cyber-defenses and keep your business running smoothly! So let’s start with…

1. Poor File Storage

One of the biggest data management mistakes a company can make is following poor data storage practices. For example, saving all your data to one location leads to a problem if that location gets damaged or corrupted. To counter this, make sure you have at least two backups of all essential data saved across multiple locations.

You should also aim to keep copies across both utilizing the cloud and physical platforms. This way, you’re afforded the digital protection and encryption most cloud services offer while also having a physical storage device to access data on-site without the Internet if needed. Because of the sheer amount of data they handle, big businesses should lean more heavily on cloud storage over physical (since lots of physical storage costs a lot).

It’s also important to note that someone could steal a physical drive with your data and move it to another disk to access it without a password. BIOS passwords circumvent this strategy, keeping the hard drive safe.

2. Unsecure Transfers

Another mistake businesses make with data management is failing to get proper network security to throw off potential hackers. In addition to the standard firewalls and anti-virus software, try using VPNs (or virtual private networks). These allow you to access the internet through a secure off-site IP address, meaning hackers can’t track your data transfers to your IP address and use said address to hack into your system.

If it’s feasible for your company, you can also look into using a wired connection for your data transfers. This eliminates the safety risk posed by wireless transfers (as they put out signals into the air that can get intercepted by hackers).

3. Weak Passwords

It’s important to look through all your company passwords and make sure they aren’t too weak to stand up to cyber-attacks. A good rule of thumb is to have your password around 15 characters long, with a variety of letters, numbers, and symbols. Sealing devices behind 2FA (two-factor authentication) also helps, as it requires users to enter a password from a secondary device (one the hacker doesn’t have) to get inside.

4. Leaving Data to Rot

Companies are told to collect as much analytic data as possible to review later, but too often they’ll neglect a large chunk of that data and leave it sitting around in storage. This means you’re paying for data storage you aren’t using. To counter this, have someone routinely go through your data and sort it into categories, trashing anything you no longer need.

You should also have an exact roadmap of what you want to use that data for before you start collecting it. This will help reduce the amount of useless data you store and give you more time to focus on the data you need. If you don’t have the resources to hire an in-house team, contracting companies that specialize in things like SDS solutions and services is a great way to address that.

5. Not Holding Employees Accountable

A massive part of data management is making sure that your employees follow all data management practices you want to implement. When they learn your procedures for acquiring and disposing of data, they can then manage said data with less risk of leaking it out.

It’s also important to ensure that your files have security against your employees (in case they get any ideas about stealing and selling your data). A good way to combat this is monitoring the IP address and login data every time someone logs into the server so you can see what activity they did while there.

6. Lacking Multi-System Compatibility

In the world of data management, file formatting gives you the ability to share your data across multiple systems and platforms. If you lack a safe and easy way to change file types, you’re slowing down the process at which your data can get analyzed and managed, which drains precious time and money. Finding a file conversion software you trust is an easy way to help with this problem.

7. Who’s In Charge?

A lack of leadership is a crippling hazard to good data management. After all, if no one knows what’s expected from the data, you’re going to pull in a lot of copies of data you already have or junk data that serves no purpose.

You can clear this up by electing a clear leader and/or team to put in charge of data management and analysis. This way, you know you’re getting useful, clean data that are either proving something or stating that something isn’t working.

8. Forgetting the Law

Finally, one of the worst business data management mistakes a company can make is not double-checking what the federal and state requirements are for storing and deleting digital files. This is especially true if you handle sensitive info like a client’s financial info or an employee’s medical history (which is protected under law). Failure to handle that data securely means your company is going to end up on the wrong side of a lawsuit and/or criminal charge.

It’s Time to Avoid Business Data Management Mistakes

So, now that you have our guide on the top business data management mistakes to avoid, what other steps can you take to keep your data handling strong? Well, for more tips on getting the most out of your business analytics, make sure to check out the other articles on our blog!