FTC offers guide for businesses, others to safeguard personal information

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Personal information is left behind wherever a person may go in these modern times, with the technology that brings communication across the world.  But with that technology, more personal information becomes available in many places and impacts credit cards, bank accounts, and personal records of all types simply as people go about their day.

The security breach that impacted 100 million Target customers over the Christmas holidays this past year has brought attention to how many people can be affected when security is compromised.  The seriousness of what happened gave impetus to finding ways to establish better security in various areas, for both businesses and private individuals.   The Federal Trade Commission offers a guide to businesses and consumers on how to safeguard information.  They advise using the following five key principles as important to use in establishing security:1.  Know what is contained in files and on computers and do an inventory of it.  For businesses this means across all computers, including peripheral devices and laptops employees take home.  For private individuals, it also means doing an inventory of where information is kept.2. Minimize the footprint of the information by scaling down.  Not all information needs to be stored.  The important information is what is important, and social security numbers for businesses may not be necessary and should not therefore be kept.  For individuals, there is a tendency at times to embrace so many platforms for storage and for documents that it becomes more and more difficult to maintain the information and remember where it is.  Therefore, it is important to store what's important and even have different locations for sensitive information and information that is general in nature.

3.  The FTC reminds businesses to lock the information so that it is protected with physical and electronic security measures.  That includes all devices, including peripheral storage drives.  Furthermore sensitive material should not be left unprotected, which includes the habit some people have of keeping a laptop in the car that may have important data that if stolen could create serious harm.

We are also reminded to change passwords to avoid risks, and that the more complex these passwords are, the more security they offer.4. When information is no longer needed, it should be shredded or burned, then tossed out.  Furthermore files should be erased in a fashion that the data can't be recovered once it is removed.5.  Finally, a good security plan for both businesses and individuals is to plan ahead in the event there is a personal security breach, a plan on how to respond that can help everyone involved, including who to contact in the event the worst happens.