A cyberattack can cost large companies millions of dollars, but it threatens small and medium-sized businesses with bankruptcy. This article will consider the best digital solution to ensure data protection during business transactions.
Digital data room: data protection is a priority
The mass transition to a remote work format contributed to employees’ more responsible attitude towards data security. As a result, according to ITRC research for 2020, publicly reported leaks affected about 300 million people, which is two-thirds less than in the previous year. However, even against the backdrop of this positive trend, the number of hacker attacks is not decreasing, and businesses are still losing huge amounts due to hacks.
Cybercriminals are interested in almost all internal data of companies:
- Corporate information – from price lists and discounts to regulatory requirements and intellectual property.
- Economic data – product cost, salary level, unpublished reports.
- Information about clients and partners.
- Personal data – credit card numbers, logins, passwords, passport details, identification codes, and more.
Whatever the corporate software, the main risk source is the human factor. Employees themselves are often the cause of cyberattacks on businesses. They lose laptops and devices, store passwords insecurely, and, contrary to the arguments, do not believe in the reality of the threat. Therefore, an important part of the security system is creating a corporate culture that helps each employee ensure security. The above risks and hacking statistics make it clear that data security should be one of the company’s top priorities. And implementing reliable digital software for organizing secure business collaboration is a part of this corporate culture.
In this case, we are talking about a virtual data room used as a full-packed platform for organizing transparent and productive business transactions like M&A deals, IPOs, real estate, etc. The software also organizes due diligence procedures when sharing confidential data between partners is needed. This deal room for due diligence allows you to store backup copies of data outside the company, which ensures business continuity. In the past, the due diligence phase could be lengthy due to mailing times, repeated questions, and misplaced documents. Using a VDR can help speed up the process. Information can be instantly collected, organized, and exchanged via the digital platform, saving time and money. The software ensures data protection, centralized storage, 24×7 security and availability, and advanced archiving and disaster recovery.
How to organize business transactions securely?
The data room software allows users to transfer the enterprise’s activities to the information space, significantly optimizing business processes and increasing productivity. Furthermore, secure transmission of information implies that information in the process of exchange will be available to a strictly defined circle of people without the possibility of its substitution or distortion during transmission.
The data room solves all the main problems related to security in the operation of the electronic document management system. High safety of documents is ensured by storing in the SQL server database, delimiting access rights, encrypting document texts, working with certified crypto protection tools, and logging the work of all system users with all its objects.
Together with the system-wide protection of the organization’s software and hardware (and carefully thought-out organizational and preventive measures (restriction of physical access to storage, printing devices, removable media, regular backup, protection against viruses, etc.), the data room system ensures a high level of safety and confidentiality of the organization’s documents.