When making a major purchase, such as a car or house, most of us don’t think twice about taking out insurance. However, many people don’t consider insuring their next major asset – their PC. Computers are such an integral part of our lives but we still take the safety of our personal information for granted. That safety isn’t guaranteed, though, and our bank account details, sensitive client information and more can all be compromised. The best “insurance policy” for your PC is a quality antivirus program, as well as comprehensive storage, archiving and e-shredding.

Spring Clean Your Data

Along with antivirus software, the best way to protect your PC from spyware and malware is a thorough spring clean. If you take a few minutes to explore the programs hidden on your PC, you may be surprised to find an abundance of unused application, unnecessary services and obsolete data.

When it comes to business, this spring clean becomes even more important. That’s because the data you will be storing will include personal and sensitive business information and other confidential data. Only keep what you need to and archive it securely. Make sure you dispose of any other information – either physical or electronic – through shredding and destruction services.

Organisation

In addition to clearing your PC of unwanted or unused programs, you can restore proper working order through simple organisation. Start by sorting your frequently used documents, videos and photos into defined categories (i.e. “Work” and “Personal”, etc.).  Removing duplicate files is another easy way to free up space, which in turn will speed up and improve the efficiency of your computer.

Archive and Back-up Files

When to comes to archiving, we tend to automatically store our physical documents. Whether it’s personal records or business information, it’s easy to collect boxes of sensitive information.
With technology, it’s much easier to forget to back up our information. Consider your options for archiving your data. Depending on its sensitivity, you could consider anything from hard drives and USB flash drives to cloud storage.

Archiving information can be important for referencing, recordkeeping or you’re your peace of mind but it is also important to dispose of documents that are no longer necessary. Whether they’re physically piling up or they’re in digital storage, shredding services are available.

Take Threats Seriously

Unfortunately, cyber threats are such a present danger. Personal PC users and business owners must take them seriously. Many companies believe their data is not of interest to cyber criminals, but the reality is that smaller, less-protected businesses are increasingly targeted.

Classify Data

In a working environment, the safety and integrity of data are paramount. The best way to protect data is to classify it into “confidential”, “internal” and “public” categories.  Classification categories such as these will ensure confidential information does not fall into the wrong hands.  Defined classification helps company employees decide whether they can share information with partnering organisations or the public, for example.

If your data is due for a spring clean, contact Brisbane’s top commercial shredding service. Whether it’s a simple paper shredding job, corporate, commercial or personal document destruction, we do it all. For all your document destruction and digital media destruction needs, contact our experienced team today.