iLegal – FTC Offers Tutorial for Businesses on Protecting Personal Information

Many times in this column I’ve highlighted the fact that that FTC is an unusually effective government entity when it comes to providing guidance to our industry. Well, they’ve done it once again, this time in the form of a tutorial on how businesses can do a better job of protecting the personal information of its customers.

Protecting the personal information of customers, clients, and employees is always good business practice, but often the expertise on how to do it is not available within small to midsize organizations. Additionally, many organizations believe that taking reasonable measures would be too costly. Fortunately the FTC recently released an online tutorial which guides businesses and other organizations in practical and low-cost or no-cost methods for improving data security.

Entitled “Protecting Personal Information: A Guide for Business,” the tutorial, located at www.ftc.gov/infosecurity, takes a plain-language, interactive approach to the security of sensitive information. While the specifics of information security will vary from company to company based upon the business model, the basic principles remain the same. According to the FTC’s brief of their tutorial,

“…[T]he basic principles are the same: any business or office that keeps personal information needs to take stock, scale down, lock it, pitch it, and plan ahead. The tutorial explains each of these principles, and includes checklists of steps to take to improve data security.

The tutorial supplements brochures, slide presentations, and articles on information security already on the Web site and available from the FTC for free. The agency is encouraging businesses and other organizations to share this important information with employees who handle personal information such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, financial account numbers, and other sensitive personal information.”

Once again the FTC has stepped to the plate and created an effective informational piece which all of us in the information business would do well to review. Don’t get caught without the information you need to do the right thing. Information security is serious business. Read up, and be prepared.