How To Keep Your Work Space Secure and Protected

Do you know how to keep your working space protected? Although you may feel that the office poses little danger, a security breach can harm your career and your future in the company.

Keeping your office space secure is a relatively simple task, as long as you get used to a number of easy and highly efficient practices.

Lock Your Computer
Each time that you leave your desk, you are exposing important information that is stored on your computer. Keeping this information safe depends on locking your account and having password protection.

Learn to log off your account each time you leave the desk. Your computer settings will enable you to protect the account with a password. Choose something relatively complex that differs from your birth date or the city that you live in.

Document Password Protection
Apart from protecting your computer with a password, you can also increase the security of important documents that contain sensitive information.

Specific programs and little tools are available for password protection of documents. Make sure that you have added a password to all of the important presentations, calculations and reports that you have spent a lot of time and effort on. Someone may otherwise feel tempted to benefit from your ideas without giving you credit. Minimize the chance of this happening by password protecting your documents.

Back Up Everything
Something can always happen to your office computer. It can be a virus or a simple act of carelessness. Such a problem may result in the loss of vitally important data.

Workplace security involves document backups. You can use an external hard drive or CDs to make copies of all the documents that are exceptionally important. Keep the copies stored in a secure place and use those in the case of an emergency.

Protecting Drawers and Cabinets
Apart from computer protection, you need to focus on keeping all of your drawers and cabinets safe.

A simple, old-fashioned locking mechanism can be sufficient for great document protection. Although it may seem like an act of paranoia you should lock all of the drawers that have printed copies of documents, presentations, contracts and other sensitive information.

Be Careful with Important Documents
A final rule of workplace safety focuses on the manner in which you handle and dispose of sensitive information. Be very careful and think about the best places to store such information.

Print out solely the documents that you will have to carry around and use during presentations and official reports. Everything else should be stored safely on your computer and protected with a password.

When disposing of such documents, it will be wisest to utilize the document shredder. Throwing documents in the waste bin will leave them exposed and available for everyone to go through.

Keeping your work space secured and protected involves several basic precaution measures. Make sure that your computer has a password and lock all of your drawers. Such steps will be sufficient to guarantee your workplace privacy.

Mandy H. Smith is an IT professional who performs IT security audits for major corporation. When she is not engaged in IT security auditing she enjoys biking and reading.

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