Organizations around the world are facing new and unparalleled challenges
related to the COVID-19 pandemic. With so many employees now working from
home, Iron Mountain is sharing best practices for maintaining the security and
privacy of your information during this unprecedented time.
Whether in a cubicle or your home, how you manage records and data is no
different - all employees must comply with organizational policies. Given
the circumstances, employees could be preoccupied with managing through
the crisis and need clear communication and reminders on policies and
procedures.
“It’s important to remind employees working remotely of best practices for information management and security. In stressful times, people find workarounds, so keep the communication simple and specific.”
Arlette Walls
Iron Mountain, Global Records
& Information Manager
Policies
Ensure policies are available to all
employees - remind them where
they are located on your intranet.
Communicate to all employees - when
in doubt, refer to the policies for:
- Records and Information
Management
- Security
- Privacy
- HR remote working guidelines
- Device security, including:
- acceptable use of devices
and handling of information
- records copied to a
personal device
- records sent to a
personal email
- home printer drivers
- use of flash drives
Be sure to publish contact
information to answer questions and
address concerns.
Security
While working remotely, employees
need to be extra vigilant regarding
the security of information and
devices.
- Protect your devices from
unauthorized access by storing
them securely when not in use.
- Do not share devices or your
login and password information
with people in your household.
- Save all content to your
designated network, not
to your desktop.
- Information saved to your
desktop is not securely
stored and protected.
- Refrain from printing
records/documents.
- If you do need to print, keep
these documents secure:
- Do not throw your
organization’s paper
records/documents in the
trash or recycle bin.
- Retain printed documents in a secure place until you can:
- Return to the office and place in a secure shred bin.
- Shred on your personal shredder, according to your
organization’s shred-spec policy.
- Go to a retail outlet that offers secure shredding services.
- For a list of Iron Mountain’s authorized shred partners in
your area, click here (ironmountain.com/residentialshred).
- Whether working from home or in a public place (as
allowed under COVID requirements) use a secure
connection rather than a public WiFi connection.
- Use privacy screens to protect your information.
- Train your employees to be hyper alert to cyberattacks,
ransomware and phishing emails. Warn employees that
criminals are looking to exploit the spread of coronavirus
to conduct cyberattacks and hacking campaigns.
Privacy
If handling/using records with personal data, you must be mindful of
compliance requirements; the information must not be made available
to any unauthorized people. It is essential that private and sensitive
data, as well as intellectual property, are not exposed to any risk of
potential data breach or misuse.