DATA SECURITY TIPS

Tips to safeguarding client privacy and personal data when working with a Virtual Migration Assistant:

• Individual Profile: Your VMA may need access to some of your systems via login. Don’t provide your profile details, rather give your VMA their own unique username and password. That way they’ll leave their digital ‘footprint’ so you can track when they access them. This includes your website, social media platforms, email inbox, file storage and any other cloud-based systems.
• Financial Information: Don’t share financial information with your VMA. Information like banking access and credit card information should be kept secure. If your VMA needs access to your accounting program for bookkeeping purposes, provide them with their own profile.
• Hosting & Backup: Host all of your systems and documents on your own server or cloud accounts. Maintain control by ensuring that you’re the creator or owner of all working files and systems that you share with your VMA. Don’t allow your VMA to create and share documents from their personal folders, or set up cloud-based systems as the owner.
• Clear Guidelines: It’s your responsibility to clearly communicate to your VMA what business information is confidential.
• Clear Boundaries: Your MVA should be on a need to know basis when it comes to sensitive business information. It’s your responsibility to limit their knowledge and have clear boundaries. Using files that are purely related to shared tasks, while leaving your other operational files separate, is a good way to do things. Set time limits on access to sensitive/confidential documents if your VMA requires access for a certain period.
• Set Access Levels: Using administrator privilege is a great way to control access levels. You can give your VMA different types of access which will limit their capabilities within the system. For example, an editor profile rather than owner profile.
• Data Backup: Secure all data backups to ensure they’re protected from external access. Generally, your VMA won’t require access to backups, so giving them access isn’t necessary.