What Is Confidential Information and How to Protect It

Considering that failure to protect the confidential information on your business could cost you some of your clients, it is imperative that you learn how to do it. A business can have confidential information in a variety of sectors and as a business owner you need to make sure that this confidential information doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

If you fail to do it, you could be jeopardizing the security of not just your clients but also violating the trust that your employees place in you. Every business's confidential information can generally be broken down into three categories. Let's take an in-depth look at each one.

Part 1: Definition of Confidential Information
Part 2: Best Way to Protect Confidential Information

Part 1Three Types of Confidential Information

1. Employee Information ：

Your employees' information contains a lot of confidential information that includes personal identification information such as an employee's social security number and other information such as home address, telephone number and email address. This is information that should never fall into the wrong hands. Even the law requires that certain employee information including medical records should be protected.

2. Management Information

You also probably have confidential information pertaining to the management of your business. Confidential management information can include employee relations information, investigations on the misconduct of employees, terminations or impending layoffs and any employment contracts you may have.

3. Business Information

Confidential information can also be of a business nature. They can include proprietary information and other information including business plans, manufacturing process and methods, financial data including budgets or even program and data compilation procedures.

Part 2The Best Software to Protect Confidential Information

The confidential information described above must be protected at all costs and the best software to help you keep this information safe if you have it in PDF format is PDFelement for Business. This is a program that is designed to make every aspect of managing a PDF document that much easier while offering you numerous different ways to keep the information on the files secure and away from unauthorized users.

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The following are some of the reasons why you should consider investing in PDFelement for Business.

It can be used to edit all aspects of the PDF document including the text and images. You can also rotate and edit the pages.
It is very useful for annotating PDF documents. You can add comments, notes and even add custom stamps to the document.
You can encrypt the PDF document in numerous ways adding passwords to protect the document and even add passwords to restrict certain actions on the document.
The program also comes with redaction features that allow users to complete redact certain parts of the documents that are too confidential to be seen.
You can also create and add signatures to PDF documents

How to protect confidential information in document? Begin by installing the program to your computer and then follow these simple steps to password protect the document.

Step 1: Open the PDF Document

Launch PDFelement and then click on "Open". This will allow you to browse your computer for the PDF document you want to protect.

Step 2: Add a Password to the PDF

To add a password, click on "Protect" in the main menu and then select "Password". A dialogue box will appear. Check "Require a Password to Open the Document". Enter the password you would like to use and then click "OK" to finish. The document will now be password protected.

Part 3 Tips to Protect Confidential Information

There are several measures you can take to protect documents with confidential information even if they are not in PDF format. The following are just some good tips.

Confidential documents should be stored in locked file cabinets and in rooms that only authorized personnel can access.
Employees should know that they cannot leave confidential information on their computer monitors when they are not at their workstations
When needed, all confidential information should be disposed of correctly. For example, a confidential document is best shredded before being thrown away.
Employees should know not to discuss company confidential information in public places and should avoid using personal email addresses to send and receive confidential information.
Unless you need to, limit the amount of personal information about the employees you need. For instance, unless you need their banking information, don't ask for it. It will mean less paper work and less confidential information you have to secure.
All confidential documents whether in physical or electronic format should be marked confidential. This is to prevent confusion over which information is confidential and which one is not.
Invest in firewalls and encryption software to keep your confidential information.