The work from home approach has become the norm in the business world in the post-COVID-19 era. A recent survey by Gartner found that more than 85% of the companies worldwide allow their employees to work from home partially or fully. This has led to high demand for project management software solutions, which allow teams to collaborate with remote employees at different locations at any time of the day.
Even though these innovative software applications offer myriads of benefits, they are not immune to potential cyberattacks. Therefore, unless organizations implement a robust and comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, it will be impossible to safeguard their confidential business data.
Data Privacy Threats in Working from Home vs. Working from Office
Every business gathers, generates, and stores an enormous amount of data as a part of its day-to-day operations. For example, they could be collecting case-sensitive data from their staff, suppliers, and partners. All of these would be managed within the project management suite to facilitate remote working. In addition to that, it would have highly confidential information about the business processes and operations as well to provide easy access to the relevant data for different teams and help them perform their jobs efficiently. That means any kind of data leakage could lead to serious problems for the company.
While working from the office, there are fewer threats to data privacy as all employees use the company network that would have all the necessary security measures implemented. However, while working from home, the data is accessed from different devices over different networks. Therefore, individual users may not have the layer of security that a business network would have.
From ransomware that steals login credentials to cross-site scripting to Denial of Service (DOS), the devices of employees working from homes are vulnerable to several active and passive forms of cyber-attacks. So, as long as the project management software framework used for collecting, generating, and storing the data remains vulnerable, it will be practically impossible to protect the data.
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What Happens When Critical Data is Lost?
The repercussions of data loss are always adverse. In addition to the data breach fines that you may have to pay if the customer moves to court, not protecting your sensitive business information will indeed affect the organization’s reputation. This, in turn, will lead to a loss of trust in your brand, and you can even lose long-standing customers, not to mention the risk of distrust among your employees.
1. Legal Consequences
Organizations that fail to protect the data of their customers face serious legal actions as well. Depending on the geographical location where your company is registered, you will be subject to state or federal data privacy violation laws. In severe cases, there could be an order for investigation at the Attorney General level.
2. Fines
Data privacy of consumers is of paramount importance. In most countries, people are entitled to a hefty amount of compensation if their private data is lost. Therefore, it is essential to realize the gravity of fines that you will be legally bound to pay as remuneration if there happens to be any data breach.
3. Goodwill of Business
The goodwill of your company cannot be measured in monetary terms. It is worth years of your hard work and consolidated efforts. A mere incident of a cyberattack can damage your reputation in the industry. It does not take much time for the news about a cyberattack to spread, hitting your current customer base and your potential target audience.
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How to Safeguard Against a Potential Data Privacy Violation Issue
It is not easy to track the safety of your data all the time. Nonetheless, it is not rocket science either. If you are willing to take the right steps at the right time, you have a hundred percent assurance and guarantee for the safety of your crucial and confidential data. Here are a few steps for that:
1. Keep an Eye on the Changing Technology
Computing infrastructure keeps changing from time to time. When a new infrastructure that offers increased data safety gets introduced, enterprises that are up to date will adapt to it. However, those who do not keep track of upcoming tech changes will lag, becoming victims to potential cyberattacks and data breaches. Therefore, it is essential to track the changes around data privacy and project management solutions to ensure you evade all potential risks.
2. Stay Up to Date About Data Privacy Regulations
The local and federal governments may change the policies and regulations regarding data privacy periodically. Therefore, you also need to keep track of the regulations and educate your team members about the changes. This helps you remain more vigilant about potential cyberattacks as well as the consequences you may have to deal with if you fall victim to any data loss.
3. Use Advanced Project Management Software
Using an advanced project management software suite like InfinCE ensures that your business data is not vulnerable to cybercriminals. InfinCE secures your business data behind advanced firewalls on its virtual private servers. It also allows you to manage access controls with high-end encryption and passwords.
If you fall prey to cyberattacks and data theft, it is not just about the loss of reputation but can lead to legal setbacks as well. Therefore, it is very important to ensure the safety of all kinds of data your business is handling in the project management software. InfinCE delivers unparalleled data privacy to ensure just that. Besides, the integration of a software solution like InfinCE also allows transforming your digital workplace into a synchronized atmosphere where communication between various departments across your business would be made easier.
Read more: All You Need to Know About Dashboards and Data Security
Benefits of Integrating Advanced Project Management Software
Employing an advanced project management system like InfinCE helps your business in many ways. It acts as a single interface for everyone in your business – the HR manager, employees, board of directors, and IT managers. In addition to that, you will benefit from the possibilities of scaling up your business operations seamlessly through it. InfinCE offers a complete suite of collaboration apps for conducting meetings, video conferences, live chats, and more. It also saves you from juggling between multiple applications for team collaboration.
InfinCE provides you with a reliable and secure project management platform where you get access to a centralized interface to manage and control all your business information. This saves a lot of time and resources for running various independent services and ensures absolute data security, which is crucial in this remote work culture of today. Know more about how InfinCE can help you enhance your project management capabilities. Contact our experts today, or just Request a Free Demo!
