The security of your clients’ information is your responsibility. No matter how big or small the business, if the personal information of one of your customers falls into the wrong hands, you could be held liable. Make sure that your contacts and employees are safe by following these simple protocols, and by training and retraining your employees to do the same.

1. Keep your loss prevention software running and up to date. It should check emails, chat, and Internet traffic, which are the places a virus is most likely to hide.

2. Keep personnel documents on a network separate from your workflow. PDF documents are a great place to hide malware, so be especially careful when accepting applications for employment. These documents need their own, isolated pool to swim in, so they have no chance to infect the rest of your office.

3. Don’t let employees use company devices on a public WIFI network. If they need to be out in the field with a laptop or tablet from work, make sure they use only secured networks, and that they keep strong passwords on all of their devices. You never know who might be sitting in that same coffee shop fishing for information.

4. Shred everything. This is what the law means when it says you must dispose of information properly. It protects your customers, and it protects you.

5. Keep it simple, and keep it fresh. These protocols, and any others that are pertinent to your particular field, need to be displayed constantly, and repeated often enough that they become a habit for every person on your team. It’s the only way to prevent a very costly mistake.