Identity theft is growing very fast affecting every business in US.
  If you are a business owner, you will collect important information about your employees and your customers.
  If you are not careful in protecting such details, identity thieves may capture them.
  Such theft may lead to serious consequences as the financial life of your customers and employees is at risk.
There is a new law introduced to make businesses responsible for security of personal details of employees and customers.
  If a business (or business owner) fails to take reasonable precautions to protect this data, it may be prosecuted for civil as well as of criminal offenses.
Due to such hard consequences, it is critical for small businesses to protect this strategic data.
  I will suggest the following security measures for any business - 1.
    Make it a routine to shred all documents which are to be discarded.
  You should never allow a single document to go directly in the garbage bin.
  There will be thieves outside searching garbage bins.
  There may also be unhappy employees searching around for such opportunity.
If you feel shading is a hassle, and then you can employ some agency which can provide these services.
  They visit regularly your office and offer you scheduled shredding sessions.
  Their staff is fully trained and they are all insured.
If your business is very small, you should buy one shredder for your use.
  The expenditure on a shredder is not a waste.
2.
    Shredding alone will not provide you complete security.
You should also use advance security software using encryption.
  All the sensitive information about your employees and your customers should be kept on computers which are secured by passwords, firewalls and security software.
  Remember, routine information of employees like their social security numbers is a very valuable piece of information to the thieves.
3.
    After employing successfully a security system, you should not feel that you have done everything to secure your data.
You should make assessment of your security system frequently to find out loopholes or breaches.
  Even a routine checking of the system can provide you clues from where the security may be compromised.
4.
    You should always use on-line banking for your business transactions.
  If all the financial transactions are done on-line leaving no paper trail, the possibility of sensitive information going into wrong hands is reduced considerably.
5.
    For payroll services, it is advisable to employ outside agency.
  This simple step can prevent numerous possibilities of identity theft.
  The payroll agencies will take care of necessary aspects of payroll like distribution of benefits and retirement accounts.
6.
    Check regularly the credit report of your business.
You should do credit checks on Employer Identification Number (EIN).
Just like any other individual, you should ensure that there is no misuse of your business credit by someone else.
  In fact the frequency of checking credit report for your business should be more than an individual.
  One in 16 businesses in the US is affected by identity theft every year.
  You work hard for the prosperity of your business.
  Just a small neglect on the security aspect should not pose a serious threat to the existence of your business.