Contact us
  • en
  • fr
  • Solutions
    • Company IntranetDiscover our company intranet software to connect and engage your employees
    • Collaboration PlatformDiscover our digital collaboration platform that boost your employee engagement and performance
    • Knowledge ManagementHow To build and manage your knowledge base with eXo Platform
    • Employee EngagementDiscover how to boost your employee engagement
  • Product
    • Overview
      • Software TourAn overview of our software capabilities
      • Why eXoHow eXo improves your employee experience
    • Features
      • CommunicationFeatures to facilitate employee communications
      • CollaborationFeatures to create efficient teams
      • KnowledgeKnowledge management capabilities
      • ProductivityEmployee productivity tools to engage employees
    • Technology
      • Open sourceAn overview of our technology
      • IntegrationsDiscover how eXo integrates with your tools and systems
      • SecurityHow eXo Platform ensures your data security
  • Pricing
    • Product pricingLearn about our business model and pricing
    • ServicesLearn about our professional services
    • FAQsQuestions about the software, the community and our offers
  • Resources
    • Resource center
      • Case studies
      • White Papers
      • Datasheets
      • Videos
    • Technical documentation
      • Getting started
      • Developer Guide
      • Technical administration guide
      • REST APIs
    • From The Blog
      • eXo Platform 6.4 is here, available in both Enterprise and Community editions!
      • eXo Platform community edition is back
      • Cloud Vs On-premise Digital Workplace: Which one is right for your business?
  • Company
    • About us
    • Careers
    • Customers
    • Newsroom
    • Contact us
    • Partners
  • Menu mobile
    • Pricing
    • About us
    • Services
    • FAQs
    • Customers
    • Resource center
    • Contact us
    • Blog
Company Intranet Discover our company intranet software to connect and engage your employees
Collaboration Platform Discover our digital collaboration platform that boost your employee engagement and performance
Knowledge Management How To build and manage your knowledge base with eXo Platform
Employee Engagement Discover how to boost your employee engagement
Overview
  • Software Tour An overview of our software capabilities
  • Why eXo How eXo improves your employee experience
Features
  • Communication Features to facilitate employee communications
  • Collaboration Features to create efficient teams
  • Knowledge Knowledge management capabilities
  • Productivity Employee productivity tools to engage employees
Technology
  • Open source An overview of our technology
  • Integrations Discover how eXo integrates with your tools and systems
  • Security How eXo Platform ensures your data security
Product pricing Learn about our business model and pricing
Services Learn about our professional services
FAQs Questions about the software, the community and our offers
Resource center
  • Case studies
  • White Papers
  • Datasheets
  • Videos
Technical documentation
  • Getting started
  • Developer Guide
  • Technical administration guide
  • REST APIs
From The Blog
  • eXo Platform 6.4 is here, available in both Enterprise and Community editions!
  • eXo Platform community edition is back
  • Cloud Vs On-premise Digital Workplace: Which one is right for your business?
About us
Careers
Customers
Newsroom
Contact us
Partners
Pricing
About us
Services
FAQs
Customers
Resource center
Contact us
Blog
  1. Accueil
  2. Tips & Tricks
  3. How to Protect Company Data in an Open Culture?

How to Protect Company Data in an Open Culture?

Adopting an open corporate culture means empowering and trusting your employees. Today, companies use an increasing amount of sensitive data, such as financials, performance metrics, competitor intelligence, or customer information. The way in which employees use and manipulate this data internally without exposing the company to legal risks is a daily challenge for security teams.

Tools such as enterprise social networks and trends such as BYOD are further opening up significant risks, making IT teams face pressure to protect IT assets while expanding the company’s potential. What issues should be considered, and what measures can be taken to protect company data in an open corporate culture?

Multiple security concerns

Security covers a vast array of topics, but when viewed through the prism of companies with an open culture, the following concerns seem to be cited most often:

Access control: Who can access systems? If the answer is “only people with corporate emails,” what about contractors and external users, such as the partners with whom your employees need to interact?
Governance: In an open environment such as an enterprise social network, people can share things freely, often creating discrete groups. Data compartments are therefore created organically, and they become places in which corporate management cannot easily exercise control
Intellectual property (IP): Employees can easily share protected IP with their colleagues; thus, the company may be exposed to legal risks without knowing it. In contrast, when content is created by collaborating with external users in collaborative environments, the IP boundaries may not be so obvious.

To mitigate security risks, IT leaders can use a wide variety of technologies, such as encryption, password management, user account deprovisioning, and associated access control mechanisms. But while adopting such technological solutions is mandatory, they are not enough. There are other soft measures that will not provide any technical enforcement but that gravitate around the stepping stone of an open company: people.

Make employees accountable for their behavior

For decades, the very first thing many companies have done is produce security policies when they grant employees access to their IT resources. Some experts suggest including those security policies as part of an employee code of conduct, which everyone must read and accept.

This effectively makes every employee accountable for his or her actions. However, many experts have noted that these policies should be kept short and simple to be effective; otherwise, employees will simply ignore them.

Educate employees

No policy document will ever make your employees security experts. For example, some employees may post confidential information on an ESN that does not have restricted access.
Therefore, it’s critical to complement policies with security training sessions that every employee must complete. These training sessions should help employees understand the threats, the consequences of their behaviours, and the associated risks.

Furthermore, senior leaders should be briefed on any security awareness program and be responsible for passing the message down to their teams. The leaders themselves must follow security restrictions completely.

Flag documents

One simple technique is to include security markings, such as “Confidential,” “Public,” or “Restricted,” on all your document templates.
This does not have to be overly complicated. The simple presence of the markings will prompt authors to think about confidentiality when they write a document and choose the appropriate mark. On the other hand, readers will inevitably see it when they share documents.
It may sound simplistic, but this method is so effective that companies like CISCO have adopted it globally.

Develop security zones

Some tools, such as collaborative software or document repositories, often contain all kinds of restricted information. However, access to these platforms is typically offered to all staff members, including contractors, and sometimes partners or customers.
When so many people can view information, it can be easy to become confused about who can see what. You can help employees determine whether they are in a confidential or public area by using visual cues (such as color codes and logos) or naming conventions, that are easily spotted and that indicate whether it’s a safe place to share an information.

Create security awareness channels

Security teams are often short on staff, so they struggle to make other employees understand what they do. Security concerns are often far from the minds of average employees, who have their own daily concerns. It takes a lot of pedagogy to explain security issues and keep people thinking about them.

In an open work environment more than anywhere else, you can create dedicated channels, such as mailing lists or discussion forums, where your security team can post information to keep other employees updated on security threats, incidents, and policy changes. These channels are ideal places for letting employees ask questions, raise concerns, and notify you of security alerts.

Create a culture of data protection

The tips suggested above for enforcements and incentives should help protect your company data, especially in an open corporate culture where so much relies on the people.

No technology can provide perfect security, which is why many experts recommend making security an integral part of your corporate culture.

Just as exercising is part of creating a healthy lifestyle, behaving safely when it comes to company data should become part of your employees’ work lives.

Data security practices must be aligned with your business strategy so you can find the right balance between risk and business agility. Of course, not all companies face the same challenges, but every company can create a culture of vigilant security.


Join The eXo Tribe

Join The eXo Tribe

Register for our Community to Get updates, tutorials, support, and access to the Platform and add-on downloads. Sign in Now!

Brahim Jaouane

I am a Digital Marketing specialist specialized in SEO at eXo Platform. Passionate about new technologies and Digital Marketing. With 10 years' experience, I support companies in their digital communication strategies and implement the tools necessary for their success. My approach combines the use of different traffic acquisition levers and an optimization of the user experience to convert visitors into customers. After various digital experiences in communication agencies as well as in B2B company, I have a wide range of skills and I am able to manage the digital marketing strategy of small and medium-sized companies.

Full-featured digital workplace with everything your employees need to work efficiently, smartly integrated for a compelling employee experience

  • Product
    • Software tour
    • Communication
    • Collaboration
    • Knowledge
    • Productivity
    • Open Source
    • Integrations
    • Security
  • Uses cases
    • Digital Workplace
    • Company intranet
    • Collaboration platform
    • Knowledge management
    • Entreprise Social Network
    • Employee Engagement
  • Roles
    • Internal Communications
    • Human Resources
    • Information Technology
  • Offers
    • Product offer
    • Services Offer
    • FAQs
  • Resources
    • Resource Center
    • Customers
    • Partners
    • About us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Legal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
wpDiscuz