How to Secure Company Data Before a Vacation?

Holidays are approaching, which for many management boards mean a long-awaited rest. However, cybercriminals and hardware failures do not take vacations. What should you remember before setting your "Out of office" status?

The holiday season is a time when companies are most vulnerable to data leaks or loss. This is due to both complex cyberattacks and human error. Sometimes a single click on a fake message is enough. That is why this article was created. Although most of us know security methods from IT training and lectures, it is worth periodically reminding ourselves of them. Especially since in the pre-holiday rush, we might miss a few key aspects.

Who has access to key information when the main manager is basking on the beach? Delegating permissions is an almost mandatory process before any vacation. Although we go through this regularly, we often repeat the same mistakes. We lock cabinets, but we pass passwords to third parties on sticky notes.

Instead, you should carry out this process directly in the system you work on. Remember the possibility of granting temporary access — indicating a specific date when a given user will lose permissions to a specific module or login details.

A backup is a key pillar of any company's operations. Without it, the loss of documents or passwords can halt the team's work for hours. Although creating backups should be an everyday routine, rather than an occasional activity, it is worth checking its effectiveness before your vacation. Make sure that the data backup is performed correctly and that it can be restored without any problems.

In the case of an ERP system, the backup should cover databases, contractor files, and any documents related to sales and warehouse processes. You should also check whether the procedure for restoring this information in the software runs flawlessly.

Before leaving, make sure you have updated your operating system (Windows or macOS). Do the same for all the programs you use in your daily work (e.g., ERP, CRM). Why is this so important? Even the best programmers can leave some vulnerabilities in the code that cybercriminals can easily exploit. The only reliable protection in this situation is to install updates on an ongoing basis.

What is extremely important — if your ERP system runs in a browser, simply updating the software is not enough. During trips, absolutely avoid using open, public Wi-Fi networks (e.g., at airports, shopping malls, or hotels). They can be constantly monitored by hackers. Instead, use a company VPN connection. It encrypts all network traffic, creating a secure, closed tunnel for your data.

By the way, if you have not yet implemented two-step verification for your account, make up for it before handing over permissions to your deputy. This additional layer of protection will ensure that even in the event of a password leak, an unauthorized person will not log into company resources.

It is worth alerting the employees who stay in the office to potential threats lurking in their email inboxes. An increasingly popular attack method is spear phishing. It involves sending personalized emails that look deceptively like messages from a supervisor or a client. You should remain highly vigilant and verify every time whether the sender's address is reliable and actually comes from a known domain.

You are leaving, but the company keeps working — contracts are negotiated, invoices are paid, and inventory levels are updated. To make your post-holiday return to reality easier, use the audit trail available in your ERP software.

An audit trail is a digital record that acts like a "black box." The system automatically registers every operation in the database. Thanks to this, you gain full insight into who made edits and when, as well as what exactly was modified. You don't have to ask your coworkers for details — you just need the full, objective timeline right in front of you.