Ok, we’ll admit it, pretty crazy question but one to ponder: Could an office sign-in sheet save your business a lot of money? Is it silly to even consider how something as small as a piece of paper signed by each person entering your office could save money?
Before the answer, let’s share a story we tell on each security presentation we give to small businesses across the country. A few years ago, a school district in Michigan experienced a data breach. On “bring your child to work day”, an employee’s 9-year-old daughter left with a sheet of paper swiped from a desk. This paper just so happened to have a listing of teachers usernames and passwords for entry into the school district’s software system. The 9-year-old found it funny to switch a number of passwords, thus causing a breach of the school district.
So how does that story relate to the question posed: If you don’t keep track of who enters your office daily, how would you ever know where that piece of paper may have disappeared to? What if that Michigan school system didn’t track entry into their office? How would they have known that it could’ve been the 9-year-old from bring your child to work day? What if a HVAC contractor was in the office and suddenly a report is missing containing a number of bank account or credit card numbers? What if you’re a payroll company and an employee’s new hire information which is faxed to you, including the employee’s SSN, goes missing?
Most small businesses don’t have the need or resources for front desk security or even a receptionist to track entry into the office. We at Shugo don’t. So what’s the best alternative for a small business: a visitor sign-in sheet next to the office front door.
If a data breach did occur, a visitor sign-in sheet can at least provide you with tracking on who had been in the office when the incident did occur. Data breach costs are at an all time high averaging $214 per record. This means that a 100 record report could cost your business over $20,000 if breached. Part of the reason why data breach costs are at an all time high are the increased legal, public relations and notification costs. Coupled with customer turnover, employee productivity loss and business reputation damage, some businesses, specifically small businesses) never recover.
When researching data breaches and how they affect small businesses, we found it interesting the one factor which can significantly increase the cost of a data breach. Not knowing how the breach occurred typically leads to a 33% more costly breach ($285/record).
So to answer our question: having a sign-in sheet can save your company significant money if it helps identify who may have been responsible for the breach. It sounds silly, but knowing who’s been in your office could help reduce the breach identification cause timeframe significantly. That simple sheet of paper could save your business $7,000 (for that breached 100 record report). For that reason, we at Shugo have a sign-in sheet and we encourage all businesses to do the same.
Filed under: Data Breach, Security Tips, Small business security
