Your business is dependent on your files, no matter if they contain confidential information such as employee information, financial details, or plans for projects. If something goes wrong it could lead to expensive fines and litigation, as well as a loss of reputation. Therefore, it’s crucial to take the necessary steps to secure your documents from unauthorized access and ensure their proper storage and disposal.

The first step in secure document management is implementing clear guidelines for the creation storage, accessing, and disposing of documents. This can be accomplished by establishing a process and capturing all processes.

Consider implementing an electronic document management system that uses encryption to transform information into a format that can only be accessed using the appropriate key. This is a great way to block access by anyone else, even if the data is stolen or intercepted.

It is essential to avoid sending sensitive documents via email, and to use a document management software that lets you track the ensuring safe document disposal history of each version. This allows you to keep track of who has accessed the document and when, which means you can go back to a previous version if it has been tampered with.

Also, be sure to include identity management in your policy. You can achieve this by using two-step authentication to access the files, and using software that is compatible with authenticator programs for secure logins. It’s also a good idea to keep all your files on servers with automated backups and redundancies so that you can avoid loss of data caused by natural disasters or hardware failures.