So I am sure we have all read or even put together your company security policies which are so important in today’s business world and I am sure we all agree, it’s something that is critical to the day to day running of all our businesses. Never has data security been more prevalent as it is now with all the recent security hacks (NHS, Deloitte, Equifax, Bupa to name a few) and of course the dawn of GDPR.
So why do so many people forget about the basics, when it comes to data security? I first raised this issue back in 2016 but it seems people just don’t get what data security means!!
Over the last year or so, I have made many train journeys and during that time, I have been so shocked at some of the basic breaches in security that I have seen. These breaches have one common fault and it’s called a mouth and that mouth doesn’t just belong to one wayward, fresh out of University newbie but belongs to many people who come from all walks of life and many who work for large organisations, that I image pay a fortune for their military standard firewall and no doubt have a very detailed suite of security policies but in those detailed policies, how many actually tell their staff not to talk on the phone while they are on the train, or indeed in public? It’s clear to me that in a world dominated by text and chat apps, people have simply forgotten how to use the telephone!!
As I said I’ve taken many trips on the train and here are some of the breaches in security I have heard and noted down over those journeys (I have changed all the names!);
“Hold on, its 4053 6763 7654 **** expires 12/2017”
“I think Graham is the man you should call but try password and just swap the p for a 9 and s’s for 5’s, as I think that works”
“For the print element just double our capacity as it will look better and charge another 14p per booklet”
“I’m seeing James Tanner tomorrow morning and I think he thinks it’s going to be a slap on the hand but there is no way we can keep him on after that, he has to go, I mean what does it say about N** if we give him another chance?”
“My name is Jane Diablo and you can reach me on 0207450****”
“Can I book my car in for a service please? Wednesday is fine, my name is Helen Walker It’s a VW golf, BX14 W**”
“Hi George, it’s Dan from Ca****, Did you have a chance to look at our proposal yet? ……. Well Ca**** really want your business George, so what if I could shave a little more off the base price and we reduce it to £13800 all in?”
“He is a complete twit, I don’t know how P** employee him and I was gutted when they said they were sending him. Just make sure you book somewhere nice for lunch as he likes his food, if you know what I’m saying!! Exactly!! And make sure you spell his surname right on the welcome screen, hang on it’s LeTissier”
“Don’t worry I know Keith Summer at Fo****, he will tell me what the others have bid, so let me speak to him first before you present our proposal”
And saving the best till last, the winner is;
“Hi Julia, It’s Kevin from E******** The team have completed the dataset, so if you go to www.E********ClientDownload.com and click Client log in and enter your email address, juliaw*****@Bir****************.org and enter the password Brightside97, your file is there and you can download it securely. We will also send you two emails for security purposes, one with the link and login and one with the password, in case you forget it”
I could have shared a few more and if you think some of these are not security breaches, you really should think again as the less information people let strangers know about them the better and are people’s lives really so busy that they can’t take or make a call in 1 1/2 hours when they get off the train or am I really becoming that moaning old git that I said I never would be?
PECS Data Services and PECS (Mauritius) are business process outsourcing companies, specialising in Document Scanning, Invoice processing, data capture, audio transcription, exam processing, employee engagement surveys, chat client management, database management, data cleansing and social media management and has offices in the UK, Cape Town and Mauritius.
www.DocumentScanningCentre.co.uk
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