Throughout the process of establishing and developing their position in the market, every enterprise accumulates a vast amount of important information related to various aspects. Some information may be made public for community access, while other information requires absolute confidentiality. This is because such information is confidential and directly affects the interests of the enterprises and their individual members. To better understand information security in enterprises, as well as methods and processes involved, please join NPLaw in exploring the following article.
I. What is information security in enterprises?
Information security refers to activities to ensure that information is transmitted safely within a specific scope using various advanced methods to prevent negative impacts from threats.
Therefore, information security in enterprises can be understood as the practice of storing information directly related to the existence and development of the enterprises in the safest possible area. This is of utmost importance to the survival of every enterprise.
Information security in enterprises must ensure the following factors: confidentiality, integrity, availability, and authenticity. Enterprises implement information security through activities such as preventing the theft of internal data, ensuring transactions with partners or clients that are private and secure, and keeping confidential information about personnel, development strategies, etc. To effectively and successfully implement information security, enterprises need to skillfully and professionally combine practical tools with technology applications and have a team of reliable employees. This shows that information security in enterprises is not simple and easy to implement.
Information in general within enterprises is quite diverse and exists in various forms. Many different enterprises will have their own specific information that needs to be protected, but most enterprises need to protect the following types of information, as they are essential.
II. Types of information are commonly protected in enterprises
Enterprises often implement security for the following types of information:
1. Employee information
In order to better grasp and manage employee-related issues, enterprises will collect and protect their personal information. This subject is considered necessary because the company's information is also avoided from being leaked outside beyond protecting the privacy of employees. Employees have to access and work with their company every day, so it is natural for them to know the company’s information. Thus, protecting employee information to avoid being exploited by the enterprises' competitors, especially senior employees.
2. Partner information
Information about the enterprises’ partners is also a factor that is subject to many threats from competitors. For strong developing enterprises, this is considered a significant disadvantage. Therefore, it is necessary to manage and protect information in the best way to avoid anti-competitive behaviors in business.
3. Client’s information
Client information needs to be kept absolutely confidential to create the reputation of the enterprises and build trust in clients. If this information is leaked outside, both clients and enterprises will suffer a lot of damage.
4. Business status information
The business status reflects many issues related to the past and present operations of the enterprises, so it needs to be kept confidential. Many competitors will take advantage of the opportunity to disadvantage their enterprises if information about the business status is disclosed.
5. Information about strategies and products
Information about strategies and products is exclusive to each enterprise, so it needs to be kept confidential to avoid copying ideas. This is the type of information that is often stolen, causing many disadvantages for the enterprises’ operation plans in the future.
6. Information about business secrets
Business secrets are considered the key to success for enterprises. Each enterprise has different secrets that need to be kept confidential depending on the business fields.
The above information is protected according to the policies and regulations established by the enterprises. A reasonable security policy not only helps enterprises ensure the security of information but also gain the significant trust of clients. Therefore, enterprises need to focus on building a transparent, absolute and effective security policy.
III. Information security policy in enterprises
An information security policy is a document that explains how an enterprise collects, stores, manages, uses, and shares information of employees, partners, clients, etc. Currently, there are no specific regulations on what a suitable information security policy is. Therefore, enterprises often build their own policies. A reasonable and effective information security policy usually includes the following factors, such as Methods of information collection, Types of collected information, Purpose of information collection, Ways of using information, Scope of sharing information, Methods of sharing information, Information sharing entities, and other information.
Currently, there are many ways for enterprises to build information security policies. Enterprises can use pre-made policy templates shared on websites, and then edit them to fit their enterprises.
It can be seen that information security plays an extremely important role in the operation of an enterprise. Therefore, the security process must be implemented in a strict and effective manner.
IV. Enterprise information security process
Enterprise information security usually goes through 4 basic steps as follows:
Step 1: Data encryption
Data encryption is the process of transforming information from one form to another. This process is quite complex and requires a lot of specialized knowledge. This can limit unauthorized entities from accessing information.
Step 2: Setting strong passwords
This is the step to directly protect the information of the enterprises because there are only entities that know the password can log in to get information.
Step 3: Two-step authentication
Enterprises can enable two-step verification for additional security. This means that in addition to data encryption and password protection, other information can also be used to log in to where the confidential information is stored.
Step 4: Secure the LAN network from external access
This network system is used to connect computers in a small area to share information with each other through files or other devices. Because it allows connection to other computers, it does not rule out the possibility of external access to the network system. Therefore, enterprises need to manage closely to ensure high safety.
Information needs to be protected from threats from competitors or malicious entities but still needs to be circulated internally within the enterprises so that employees can use it for their work. So how to ensure that employees will not disclose information to the outside? The enterprises can negotiate with employees through the labor contracts.
V. Information security clause in the contract
According to Clause 2, Article 21 of the Labor Code 2019, when employees work directly related to business secrets and technological secrets according to the regulations of the law, the employers have the right to agree in writing with the employees on the content, duration of protection of business secrets, protection of technological secrets, benefits and compensation in breaching.
Once the parties committed to the clause on information security in the contract, employees are not allowed to disclose business secrets or corporate information in any form to the outside without the consent of the employers. If the employees still intentionally breach such regulations, they will be held responsible through disciplinary action and compensation for damages.
In addition, in case the employee has left the company, this clause can also bind such the employee not to assist competitors in adversely affecting the company's business operations.
VI. Commitment to information security after leaving work
The commitment to information security after leaving work is just as important as the security commitment during the time the employees are still working. This commitment is made in writing that clearly records the employees will not disclose or disclose confidential information of the enterprises after they leave work, except in cases required by the competent state agencies, in order to protect the confidentiality of all information in the enterprises.
In addition to the methods mentioned to avoid the situation of business information being disclosed to the outside through the company's employees, there is also the method of information security and non-competition agreement.
VI. Agreement on information security and non-competition
The Information Security and Non-Compete Agreement (commonly known as an NDA) also aims to commit employees not to disclose business information to third parties. The information security and non-competition agreement includes the following basic issues, such as regulations on confidential information; scope of security; duration of security; employee's obligations; responsibility for breach, etc.
Above are the issues related to information security in enterprises that NPLaw has provided to help enterprises better understand and accurately implement information security issues, ensuring safety for business operations of the enterprises. If you have any questions about the above topic, you can directly contact NPLaw to receive the most specific consultation. NPLaw is always ready to answer any questions in many different fields that you are having trouble with. So, please contact us whenever you need, we will support you.
