Businesses retaining and maintaining sensitive data from employees and customers isn’t unheard of, in fact, as of 2013, 46 of the 50 United States have legislation regarding data and data breaches because it is such a common occurrence. Depending on the relationship, collecting sensitive data may be required in order to conduct normal business. Usually that information is stored in data bases on site, along with information from employees on payroll and vendor’s for accounts payable. If there is a data breach, 46 states have legislation that requires notification of the breach.
Data breaches can be frightening, and pose serious problems for anyone who may have had their information stolen, whether it be identity information, passwords, or sensitive bank account information. Plus, if a breach occurs, the requirements of the legislation of each state are varied, and can cause major problems for businesses, that face data encryption review. Breaches are not as uncommon as you would imagine. According to a 2012 California case study of data breaches, over 2.5 million people were effected by 131 breaches in that year alone, and according to the California Attorney General Kamala Harris, almost half of those people wouldn’t have been put at risk if the business had simply taken precautions to encrypt their data.
The 46 states, besides those four that don’t have laws concerning the subject: Alabama, Kentucky, New Mexico, and South Dakota, can have major setbacks required for businesses in order to maintain the safety of customers and employees. The best way to prevent data breaches and to comply with the data breach legislation in your state is to encrypt the data of your accounts, including all accounts payable and payroll data.
Encrypting can be a confusing process. What does encrypting your data mean, exactly? Simply that the sensitive information a business stores about an employee, customer or vendor is translated into code using an encryption key. This information cannot be read, accessed, or used unless the person who is attempting to use the data has a separate code called a decryption key. This key is given to the intended recipient of the data, or the person who has permissions to access the sensitive information. By encrypting the data in the payroll and accounts payable accounts, the only people who are allowed to see the sensitive information stored in the servers are those who have permission to access it.
The best thing to do for your business, employees and customers is to purchase a product that encrypts accounts payable and payroll data for your accounting needs. If you are interested in check printing software that can be used with virtually any Sage accounting application and encrypts all data in accounts payable and payroll, Create-A-Check is the best option. Create-A-Check encrypts vendor and employee bank account information, fractional routing numbers, and electronic ACH payment logs. Create-A-Check also requires specific permissions and logins to access any sensitive data. For more information go to www.Piracle.com.