• Keep important documents in a safe or safety deposit box.
• Shred your statements before throwing them out.
• Don’t be careless with your mail.
• Keep social security numbers secure and only on a need to know basis.
• Don’t let employees take customer and employee data out of the office.
• Protect your digital files (i.e. encryption, passwords and physically).
• Learn how to encrypt your files and store them securely on optical media (DVD, CD), external hard drive, or online storage service.
• Properly dispose of unnecessary copies of sensitive data (i.e. shred paper, wipe and physically destroy hard drives, CDs, disks).
• Loose lips sink ships. Sometimes it’s best to zip your lip.
• “Social engineering” is one of the most efficient ways for scam artists to get info they should not have.
• Don’t send passwords via email.
• Teach your employees to treat data and security seriously.

Be aggressive, take it seriously and don’t delay. Do what you can to protect your data — no one else will.

What would you suggest?