The Importance of Securing Customer Data

Not all data are created equal. Within any individual or organization, there will be numerous levels of data. Some data is more important than others, while others require more security and protection. Customer records are very important and we don’t want this data out in the open and available to hackers. You want to protect this data securely on encrypted hard drives, and create backups of them in case they are destroyed or a hard drive failure occurs.

List of Data Impact Levels

Impact levels determine how a data is a threat or a risk to an individual or organization. Here, is a list of data impact levels based on the category. There are 6 impact levels, impact level 0 is where the loss of data does not have an effect on the company, while 6 is devasting and could possible put you out of business.

0 – Public records, data is available to anyone

1 – Employee information that is not public

2 - General information about the company that is not available to the public

3 - Payroll, customer info, sales receipts and records.

4 – Credit card information and facts.

5 – Cash flow, debts, assets, liabilities of the company

6 – Bank login credentials. Cash flow strategies.

Some organizations believe that each data should be treated as high priority. This cannot always be practical. You need to evaluate the needs of the company, as well as the importance of the information.  Security should be your number one concern. You want to protect your data and hard drives in case they crash, or even get struck by a natural disaster.