Many companies are often unprepared when dealing with troubled times, such as the global economic downturn that causes catastrophic effects on businesses. Some companies that have been in business for decades or more than a century can go bust without warning. In this case, it is important for businesses to evaluate their development strategies. Adding further misery to these businesses is that criminal incidences may increase exponentially. Many workers and employees can be made redundant or laid off. This has caused them to lose income and to struggle with very low income offered by the welfare system. There are things companies could do to improve security measures:
- Conduct an audit: Each company has unique security procedure and business owners may fail to realize this essential factor until it is too late. There are incidents of vandalisms, fraud and thefts caused by disgruntled employees. So, it is important to implement security measures to check problems caused by internal sources. In all cases, security measures should be applied as preventive procedures, instead of post incidents. There could be very few security specialists available in specific areas and the extent of these audits can be influenced by prices. Regardless of what systems they choose, they should focus on security products that can stand the test of time. As the business prospers and grows, security-related problems can be more complex and difficult to solve. On the other hand, small business could conduct their monthly security audits in just one or two days.
- Form threat prevention and management unit: As a company grows, it may require the establishment of threat prevention and management unit. There are security risks that can be caused by partnerships, joint venture, steady business growth, redundancies, downsizing and other crises. For medium-sized companies, the team can be consisted of no more than three employees, who are working as threat preventive and management team part-time. In bigger companies, the team can have dedicated employees headed by a security director. It is important even for the smallest business has such a team, although the only member of the team is business owners themselves.
- Design and test continuity plan: Surviving an economic downturn is difficult enough, some security-related disasters could be so catastrophic to cause businesses to close their doors permanently. In the aftermath of data theft scandals, many companies could lose trust among customers causing reduction in revenue and they could experience financial losses. No small or medium companies can cope with a major loss of revenue caused by robbery or theft. So, it is important for companies to have continuity plans to ensure that they can keep on operating regardless of huge financial loss or serious data theft. Employees may steal valuable data if they are disgruntled and sell it to the competitors. There are also cases of disgruntled former employees who cause vandalisms and perform arsons in the middle of the night. Business continuity plan is often integrated with insurance coverage that covers security risks.
