How to Protect Your Company From Data Breaches

Table Of Contents:

• Understand Where Breaches Really Come From
• Lock Down Digital Data First
• Don’t Forget Physical Records — A Hidden Breach Risk
• Build Secure Document Policies
• Train Employees — Your First Line of Defense
• Implement Secure Disposal & Storage Solutions
• What To Do If a Breach Happens
• Partner With Corodata To Protect What Matters Most

Data breaches feel unavoidable right now. Every week, you see another headline about a data breach. According to Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform, around 94 million data records were leaked in data breaches in the second quarter of 2025. In many cases, those records are later sold or distributed on the dark web, causing damage far beyond the initial breach.

Statista reports that the average cost of data breaches worldwide for companies was approximately $4.4 million. Although this represents a 9% decrease from 2024, it remains a significant burden for most organizations. 

Not all breaches result from sophisticated firewall hacks. Many start with lost files, improperly discarded hard drives, unlocked storage rooms, or employees clicking phishing links. When businesses focus on cybersecurity while ignoring records management security, they expose themselves to serious vulnerabilities.

Data breach protection for businesses requires a strategy that protects both digital and physical files. This guide will help you understand where such threats come from and how to prevent data breaches.

Understand Where Breaches Really Come From

When most people hear the term “data breach,” they picture hackers breaking into company servers. However, they are only a part of the problem.

Breaches can also originate from:

• Phishing emails and weak passwords: Employees may click links or use passwords like “123456789”, opening doors to attackers.
• Lost or stolen documents: A misplaced folder or briefcase can expose confidential records, such as patient medical records.
• Improper disposal: Unlocked bins and dumpsters may expose data such as Social Security numbers or proprietary business data to criminals.
• Misconfigured cloud storage: Easily accessible files can expose confidential data to anyone with an internet connection.
• Insider mistakes: Employees may rush processes, ignore business data security best practices, and accidentally share sensitive data.

Remember, most breaches are preventable. With the right systems and policies, businesses can drastically reduce data breach risks.

Lock Down Digital Data First

When it comes to data breach protection for businesses, digital security is your starting point.

• Strong passwords. Advise your staff to use unique, complex passwords for their logins. You should also use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to stop unauthorized access. 
• Encrypt all sensitive data on laptops, hard drives, servers, and emails. If a thief steals such devices or a hacker gains access to your servers, encryption scrambles the data, making it unreadable. 
• Regularly patch your systems with release updates to fix known vulnerabilities, and remember to stick to your patching schedule.
• Grant access as needed. Grant employees only the access they need. Least-privilege access limits damage when staff compromise your accounts.
• Automatically back up your data and have a disaster recovery plan. This can help you quickly restore your operations without losing years of data or paying ransoms. 
• Have offline backups so hackers cannot compromise your system through cyberattacks.

Don’t Forget Physical Records — A Hidden Breach Risk

This is where many businesses fall short. They invest heavily in security systems or cybersecurity teams, yet leave physical records vulnerable through unsecured storage and informal processes. Unsecured file rooms may attract insider threats, even through accidental exposure. 

Old hard drives and backup tapes that contain business data and customer information may also sit in cabinets for years. Drives, for instance, don’t simply delete data; they don’t erase everything. Data is still recoverable. You must shred the hard drives to make the data unrecoverable.

Remember, cybersecurity isn’t complete without secure records management. If you don’t know where your physical records live, you can’t protect them. With Corodata, you get secure off-site storage solutions to save your office space and help you with compliance.

Build Secure Document Policies

Policies provide guidelines for how your staff should handle your documents. Without them, your employees make guesses, which could lead to gaps. 

Start with retention schedules that dictate what documents you need to keep and for how long. Different records have different legal retention requirements. For instance, it’s advisable to keep legal documents, such as trademarks and ownership records, indefinitely. On the other hand, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires small businesses to retain tax records for three to seven years. This, however, depends on the particular situation. 

Having proper schedules protects you by balancing legal obligations and security risks. Just keep what you need and destroy what you don’t.

Then, implement chain-of-custody tracking for your documents. This shows you who accessed a file, when, and why. It also shows when they returned the file. This may require employees to sign for documents they get from secure storage. Such accountability deters unauthorized access while providing clear audit trails.

In the event employees take records offsite, establish clear rules regarding such incidents. This could include not leaving confidential documents in their cars or in checked luggage.

Train Employees — Your First Line of Defense

Your employees can be your greatest vulnerability or your strongest shield. This is why training them isn’t a one-time event but an ongoing process.

Reporting suspicious activity can change your employees into proactive players. If an employee, for instance, clicked on a bad link, they should feel safe to raise the alarm. Create clear reporting channels for such scenarios. The faster you know about a data breach, the faster you can contain the damage. 

Implement Secure Disposal & Storage Solutions

To achieve physical records breach prevention, you must professionalize your offsite storage and disposal solutions. This is where many businesses struggle. They know they need to store documents securely, shred them during disposal, and manage backups. However, most don’t. They don’t have the expertise or tools to do so. 

This is why Corodata is here to make this process smooth for you. We offer services that include:

• Locked shred consoles: This protects your documents until destruction.
• NAID AAA-certified shredding: This makes sure we follow shredding best practices and not just destroy your records, but destroy them properly.
• Secure vaulting: We offer climate-controlled vault storage for magnetic tapes, pathology samples, digital media, evidence, and other sensitive materials.
• Certificates of destruction: They prove compliance. You can provide them to support regulatory audits.

At Corodata, we specialize in secure storage and disposal services. We make the entire process from pick-up to storage and disposal simple and compliant. 

What To Do If a Breach Happens

The truth is, even with the best security system, a breach can occur. When this happens, your reaction matters and determines the outcome. Here’s what you should do:

1. Contain the issue immediately: Disconnect compromised servers from networks and change passwords on affected accounts. Also, secure any physical areas where you lost documents.
2. Notify leadership and legal: Business owners and C-suite executives need to be informed of the situation immediately, even during off-hours. Your legal counsel will guide you on the response in accordance with the state’s notification laws.
3. Preserve records: Don’t delete logs or throw away evidence. They can help forensic investigators determine how the attack occurred and also attorneys in the event of litigation.
4. Assess the impact: What was exposed? How many people were affected? What systems were compromised? When will we return to full operation? 
5. Learn and improve policies: Every breach reveals system weaknesses. Make sure you conduct a review to identify how the breach occurred and what you need to change.

Acting quickly while having a disaster recovery plan is your best course of action after a data breach.

Partner With Corodata To Protect What Matters Most

The goal of data breach protection for businesses is not to eliminate risk entirely. In today’s environment, that simply isn’t realistic, especially given the constant presence of human error. Breaches will keep happening, and threats will keep evolving. But your business doesn’t need to be vulnerable.

With digital security, clear policies, employee training, and secure records management, the risk of data breaches drops.