As a small business owner, you can never be too careful with all the financial information you hold at your place of business. While much of it is stored on your computer, some may be based in a Cloud file storage and other information is kept in hard copy files. There is so much financial information that could cause serious issues if it fell into the wrong hands that it is imperative that you find ways to ensure that doesn’t happen. Here are some key reasons how and why you should protect financial information for your small business.

Virtual Mail Services to Avoid Showing Your Actual Location

When it comes to your physical location, there are always going to be criminals with nefarious intent out there. They assume you may be holding hard copy files with the financial information of your customers as well as your own banking and credit information. You do, after all, receive statements in the mail each month that can indicate how much money you keep in those accounts. With that information in hand, hackers can then go online to get your login details to access your accounts. This is especially possible if you keep a saved password list in your browser.

All a criminal needs to know is whether there is enough money to make it “worth their time and effort.” If you have tens of thousands of dollars in any one account as indicated on those paper statements, that’s all they need to go on before launching an online hack. Instead of having any financial statements or information delivered to your physical location, have it delivered to a real physical address you can subscribe to on reputable companies. Even email statements can be hacked so this is far safer in the long run.

What Exactly Is a Virtual Mailbox?

When you subscribe to a virtual mailbox you can be given a Post Office box number or a real physical address. Always look for a mailbox service like that offered at PhysicalAddress.com, that doesn’t outsource anything. You are given a virtual mailbox address and that’s where your hard copy mail is delivered. They then have staff that opens and scans your mail so that you can view it at any time.

However, it should be noted that you simply read it online then immediately clear your browser. While it is suggested that you never print a hard copy for the very reasons mentioned above, the one thing you never want to do is toss that mail in the trash. Always shred it first if you need to dispose of it so that criminals cannot access any information if they happen to go through your trash. That said, unless you are in a commercial location, criminals may have no reason for going through your dumpsters!

Do the Research!

You may not believe just how prevalent financial hacks are today, even with the latest advances in cybersecurity. This site will list all the biggest financial data hacks as of August 2022 so that you will understand that even the biggest, and securest financial institutions are not immune from cybertheft. If it is that easy for those large and ultra-secure financial institutions to be the victims of data breaches, it should be evident how serious a matter this is for small businesses everywhere.

The case in point here is that if you can add this extra layer of security that will prevent them from getting financial information from hard copy files, it is well worth your effort to buy a virtual mailbox address. It’s well worth the minimal expense as opposed to your exposure to huge financial losses.