Enterprise System Security
MHC Team 
January 14th, 2020
Enterprise security has become increasingly vital for businesses. When customers do business with any organization, they entrust that company with many pieces of private information about themselves. In return, they expect the business to keep those details safe and protected. Depending on the type of work a company does, they may collect customer information such as credit card numbers, banking information, Social Security numbers, addresses, health information and more. The accounting and finance fields are two areas where enterprise system security becomes especially crucial.
This piece will discuss the importance of enterprise security and the best practices available for keeping your customers’ information protected.
What Is Enterprise Security?
The definition of enterprise security is the process or actions a company follows to protect the data and information stored on their servers. Companies with well-established enterprise security management will have the proper policies and procedures in place to prevent the infringement of their integrity and customer confidentiality. Enterprise security policies should indicate who, what, when, why and how to implement all steps of the procedure to protect the company’s information assets. Depending on their goal, hackers may attempt to access a business’ network, servers, workstations, storage, data and electronic applications. If they are successful, they will potentially be able to obtain sensitive information about both the company’s customers and staff.
One of the central aspects of enterprise security is a risk management program, which will help businesses implement protection strategies by identifying their assets, threats and vulnerabilities. Businesses must continually assess both their enterprise security and risk management programs to stay abreast of potential weak points and areas for improvement.
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Enterprise and information security lies within two major goals of every business: earning a profit and satisfying their customers.
The Importance of Enterprise Security
Enterprise and information security lies within two major goals of every business: earning a profit and satisfying their customers. When a cyberattack happens at a business, it can adversely impact both the company’s finances and customer relations. It can be uniquely challenging — and sometimes impossible — for customers to continue doing business with a company that did not take steps to protect their sensitive information. Without an effective enterprise security system in today’s online world, a business will likely find itself to be a victim of cybersecurity attacks eventually.
Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report found small businesses are the victim of 43% of all cyberattacks. It’s no surprise that cybercriminals focus on small businesses, as they assume these companies do not have the same level of resources and security systems as larger corporations. They may also believe small business owners are not as adept in dealing with cybersecurity systems and attacks, providing them with more time to access sensitive information. For these reasons, investing in effective enterprise security management systems and establishing effective procedures for dealing with cyberattacks is just as vital for small business owners as it is for large corporations.
Today’s document management solutions allow businesses to transfer important paper documents into easily accessible electronic information. When businesses use document management solutions, they can minimize the amount of paper they use and save space by cutting down on paper-related storage needs. These systems also help them keep their offices more orderly and less cluttered with physical documents. Modern document management systems will also help companies protect private customer information against security breaches and cyberattacks. Since this process is automatic, each piece of sensitive information on file will have protections that safeguard it from hackers and cybercriminals.
The primary reason enterprise security is necessary for businesses is that it allows them to build trust with their customers and assure them that their information is private and protected. A data breach that results in the compromise of sensitive customer information is a surefire way for businesses to lose loyal customers.
Enterprise Security Best Practices:
1. Capturing information securely via scanning
2. Using a secure ECM system, not a file share, which keeps unstructured data out of risky systems
3. Identifying sensitive information, even if it was handwritten , to ensure the appropriate entities retrieve it
Enterprise Security Best Practices
MHC’s enterprise software provides a solution to security worries surrounding document management. This aspect of enterprise security retains control of unstructured data from documents and digital files, including:
- Capturing information securely via scanning
- Using a secure ECM system, not a file share, which keeps unstructured data out of risky systems
- Identifying sensitive information — even if it was handwritten — to ensure only the appropriate entities retrieve this info
Overall, every company should follow several enterprise security best practices. Here are five tips to follow to ensure your enterprise security management is always updated and as effective as possible.
1. Protect the Weakest Link
Your security system is only as strong as its weakest link. What would you guess cybercriminals are more likely to go after — the most protected, intelligent individual or system, or software they know is easy to get into? It doesn’t matter how sophisticated your enterprise security system is if you do not use it to protect all aspects of your company and customer data. Make sure to consider your system’s weakest link as you establish your enterprise security system to avoid becoming the victim of a cyberattack.
2. Grant Permissions Conservatively
If you ever do have to provide a customer, client, employee, contractor or another stakeholder with access to protected documents within your system, make sure you only provide them with the permissions they need. It’s smart to separate your documents and files into sections specific parties will need to access, and only providing them with the permissions to access those particular items. This best practice prevents both internal and external cyberattacks by limiting the number of people who have access to certain information and data.
3. Be Cautious of Who You Trust
If something does go wrong with your system or servers, make sure a trusted individual at your company is responsible for communicating with your provider and figuring out what steps to take to correct it. If you let any random person gain access to your documents and information, you run the risk of becoming hacked — either by the staff member, or by another hacker if the individual did not take steps to protect the data on their end. You should always anticipate the possibility of cross-site scripting, command injection and other types of cyberattacks, especially when there is a cloud component to your servers and security systems.
4. Encourage Privacy
Another way you can maximize the value of your company’s enterprise security system is by encouraging your employees to follow fundamental best practices for internet privacy and security. Provide your team with the resources they need to learn about personally identifiable information (PII) and the software and solutions your business is using to protect this type of data. When your employees are in the know about your company’s efforts to be more secure, they are more likely to take matters personally and do what they can to contribute to this goal.
5. Use Your Resources
When you choose to work with a company like MHC, you’ll have plenty of experts to reach out to if you have questions or concerns. Use all the resources you have available to you to ensure your enterprise security management solutions are working at full effectiveness.
Use all the resources you have available to your enterprise security management solutions are working at full efectivness.
ID Protect — the Enterprise Security Solution
MHC’s ID Protect solution is a form of enterprise security management that focuses on protecting PII within your archived documents. ID Protect searches documents for fielded PII data, then locates the information and redacts the value either as a removable annotation or as a “burned-in” permanent redaction.
The major benefits of this software include the following.
Ease of use: ID Protect lets businesses easily audit and report user and document activity, so you’ll always know who accessed the information stored on your servers. It’s straightforward to use, and the reports our system creates are easy to understand.
Versatility and scalability: To match a business’ unique profile and needs, ID Protect from MHC is versatile and scalable. We built it to benefit companies of all sizes, from small businesses to larger corporations.
Compliance assurance: Compliance issues aren’t a concern when you have ID Protect. We designed our document identity protection software to meet all compliance restrictions for the organizations that will use this product. Some of those standards include HIPAA, FOIA (US), PIPEDA (Canada), PCI-DSS, WI Act 314 (SB 507), HB 46 and OH SUB.
Protection from security breaches: Security breaches will disrupt the entire flow of your business operations and potentially result in significant losses for the company, its staff, its customers or all of the above. ID protection from MHC provides companies with the ability to redact sensitive data such as credit card numbers, employee ID numbers, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, driver’s license numbers, policy numbers and more.
Improve Compliance: Errors can happen to any company, but the chances of a costly error occurring in a company that is equipped with RPA is substantially lower. The wrong error at the wrong time can be devastating for companies in highly regulated industries, such as pharmaceuticals, food, healthcare and finance. These industries have such tight regulations, that one major error can bring down an entire company. Luckily, with RPA, errors are eradicated because the processes that cause the most mistakes — repetitive, tedious tasks — are completed by computers and fully automated.
Because of the importance of customer and company privacy, ID Protect is one of the foundational services we offer. PII should always be redacted in your business’ internal records to prevent identity theft and protect one of your company’s most valuable assets: your customers. When you have this software, you’ll have peace of mind and protection from the legal liabilities and government sanctions that can come along with internal and external security breaches.
Our powerful ID Protect software uses cutting-edge technology called intelligent character/optical character recognition that redacts private data, even if it was handwritten on the original document. You can even choose whether you want the redaction to be permanent, or if those with the proper security clearances will be able to view the original information when needed.
How Automation Can Improve Enterprise System Security
Many of today’s computer systems are automated, including security solutions. When you invest in an enterprise security system that uses document capture software and workflow automation, you can be confident your information is automatically under protection from the second you upload it to your servers.
1. Document Capture Software
Document capture software allows you to save documents and data securely in your system and protects sensitive information from intruders. Quickly turn documents you’ve scanned into your system into usable information. Plus, you’ll be limiting the amount of paper throughout your office and automating the process of finding specific documents. Your employees will be able to conduct a quick search to locate the data they need when you have an effective enterprise management system in place.
The automation factor of document capture software redacts the documents you scan into the system, so they are unreadable and inaccessible to cybercriminals or anyone who does not have the proper permissions to access them. Scan in the documents, and your enterprise security management system will take care of the rest.
2. Workflow Automation
Workflow automation software can correctly categorize and organize documents and files, so they are only available to those with the right permissions. For example, people in your accounting department will need access to financial information such as credit card numbers and other purchasing information. People in human resources, on the other hand, may not need access to that same information. Workflow automation software ensures data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, and if it does, it is at least safe from prying eyes.
Workflow automation also reduces the chance of human error in data entry and other processes, which in turn reduces the chances of breaches. In addition to reducing mistakes, workflow automation frees up your employees to handle more stimulating and creative responsibilities. By moving your documents through the enterprise security process automatically, your staff will be able to maintain a more focused workflow throughout their days. They won’t have to stop in the middle of a large project or meeting to find a physical document, and the company won’t be losing that money due to downtime.
When deciding what tasks to automate, choose wisely. A good rule of thumb is to leave the more detailed and engaging work for your employees to handle, while passing off redundant responsibilities like data entry to automated systems.
Security Automation Solutions From MHC
When you need enterprise security solutions that will give your business and its customers the level of protection you deserve, MHC Automation is the team to turn to. Our solutions are what we call platform- and application-agnostic, which means we can integrate them with your company no matter what type of applications or servers you currently use. We offer the functionality and dependability of larger enterprise security management companies but at a more reasonable price point. Plus, you won’t need a large IT department to use our system — it’s just as quick to learn as it is effective.
Automation and document capture software from MHC offers companies several benefits, including boosted productivity and efficiency. When you can automatically convert paper documents into an organized, electronic file, you’ll save your staff significant amounts of time they would otherwise have spent sorting through stacks of paper to find the document they need. On top of this, our document capture software automatically protects private information.
If you’re ready to take the necessary steps to secure your company data and maintain trust with your customers, contact us about our complete automation solutions.
