Ten Steps to Protecting Confidential Data

1. Know why protecting information matters.
2. Understand the risks of not protecting information.
3. Identify the information you need to protect.
4. Make it clear that confidential information is indeed confidential.
5. Determine your need to reveal before you share confidential information.
6. Limit confidential information exposure.
7. Apply digital security basics.
8. Construct the appropriate precautionary force field.
9. Fulfill confidentiality obligations to others.
10. Support your company’s information protection ecosystem.

Each of these ten steps is explained in its own chapter, structured to highlight the core points, and reinforced with takeaways and a spot quiz that underscore its essential elements. The afterword compiles all ten steps and takeaways. An answer key is provided in an appendix.

By applying the ten steps in the book Positively Confidential, the reader will:

• Protect your organization’s valuable information and contribute to complying with privacy law, contract, and policy information security requirements.
• Make smart decisions about sharing information while engaging with business associates, using social media, transmitting information with the latest digital gadgets and online services, or encountering scams.
• Position your organization to make confidential information available strategically and safely.
• Minimize the likelihood of causing or being an accomplice to a confidentiality breach.
• Help your firm capitalize on its intellectual property and create new revenue streams.

Positively Confidential guides the reader to protect information and share it under the right circumstances. Readers who apply the ten steps reap rewards for themselves and their organization. Buying the book for all company stakeholders helps keep you and your company out of trouble while enabling individual and organizational prosperity.