9 simple steps to prevent data breaches in the workplace

From cyber-attacks to full-blown cyber-warfare, digital attacks have become more commonplace as our reliance on technology has grown. Thankfully, there are many simple steps you can take to protect your workplace from the risk of compromised cybersecurity and prevent potential data breaches.

The UK Government’s 2025 Cyber Security Breaches Survey revealed that 43% of businesses and 30% of charities reported having experienced a cybersecurity breach or attack in the last year.  Larger businesses are the most at risk, with 74% experiencing a breach or attack. 67% of medium businesses were also affected, as were 42% of small businesses and 35% of micro businesses. Despite this, more than half of businesses have no form of cybersecurity risk assessments in place.

How to prevent data breaches at work

There are many steps your organisation can take to improve cybersecurity and prevent data breaches. First, the key to any solution is identifying that there is a problem. Consider any areas of risk at your organisation. Bear in mind that 6 in every 10 data breaches include the human element – i.e. things being done (or undone) incorrectly or inadvertently. So, what are some examples of data breaches in the workplace?

• System intrusion. Without adequate security, vulnerabilities in your networks or databases could be exploited to steal information or deploy malware.
• Physical theft or loss. This could include lost laptops and USB drives, or the incorrect disposal of confidential paperwork.
• Miscellaneous errors. This could be something as simple as not putting customers into the BCC field of a promotional email.
• Social engineering. Through phishing, smishing, and vishing, recipients of fraudulent communications could be tricked into providing credentials, downloading viruses, or sharing information.
• Privilege misuse. For example, your Customer Service team shouldn’t have access to all HR and personnel files.
• Compromised passwords. Imagine what could happen if your competitors got access to your marketing email database or other internal systems!
• Insider threats and espionage. This is where employees or outsiders could leak data accidentally, or purposefully steal it for personal or financial gain.

To prevent a data breach at work,  everyone in your company must understand their responsibility to protect sensitive information. Outlined below are 9 steps all businesses can take to prevent data breaches in the workplace.

1 – Invest in cybersecurity at your workplace to reduce the risk of unauthorised access

No organisation is invulnerable to an attempted cyber attack. One of the most common ways that hackers get access to confidential records or information is through finding holes in your digital armour.

To prevent unauthorised access to your network, you should:

• Ensure all employee devices have the necessary antivirus software, anti-malware, and strong firewalls in place.
• Embed a culture where staff install software updates as soon as they are available. Software updates regularly patch vulnerabilities in software. Staying up-to-date could prevent an attack.
• Invest in encryption. Ensure all devices issued to staff are encrypted. If devices do end up lost or stolen, files won’t be accessible.
• Enforce multi-factor authentication on all software or apps that are used by your workforce. That way, even if a password is compromised, hackers can’t get in.

Should the worst happen and a data breach occurs, it’s also important to have a disaster recovery solution or data loss plan in place. This way, your IT department will be able to recover any data you’ve lost and disarm threats upon discovery.

2 – Conduct regular cybersecurity risk assessments and actively search for vulnerabilities

Many organisations take a reactive approach to cybersecurity, rather than a preventative one. We call this the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” approach. But, as technology evolves, something that has worked to prevent breaches in the workplace for years may not work tomorrow. New risks can emerge overnight. Regular penetration testing will identify any holes in your cybersecurity processes and can identify areas of opportunity from the perspective of an attacker. Consider all areas of the business, from data storage to how employees are accessing documents remotely, and the general functionality of your online protection.

Cybersecurity risk assessments can also identify any potential security hazards. If leadership buy-in is a challenge at your workplace, these assessments are very useful for giving busy seniors a breakdown of risks and the opportunities to initiate change. Remember, risks are not just financial. They can be reputational, operational, and compliance-related. Be sure to include all of these implications in your assessment. Importantly, keep these documents password-protected to avoid exposing vulnerabilities to unauthorised individuals. This is particularly crucial if using shared network drives in the workplace.

3 – Train your staff and make sure they know what to do if they suspect a data breach

The 2025 Cyber Security Breaches survey found that just 19% of businesses overall and 21% of charities overall provided training or awareness sessions on cybersecurity in the last 12 months.

With 6 in every 10 breaches caused by human error, this isn’t enough. To prevent data breaches in the workplace, educating employees is essential. They should be able to:

• Identify what is considered confidential or personal information
• How to protect confidential or personal information
• How to spot potential security risks such as phishing scams
• What to do if they suspect a data breach has occurred.

Cybersecurity should be part of your company culture, and you want to aim to get to a place where it becomes second-nature to your workforce.

One great platform we recommend for issuing staff training and conducting your own regular phishing tests is usecure. This platform offers great value for money. Not only does it have dozens of ready-made cybersecurity training modules that can be automatically deployed on a frequency you choose, but you can also use it to build custom courses tailored to your organisation’s systems.

However, most importantly, you need to create a workplace culture where employees aren’t afraid to own up if they’ve done something wrong. Try to avoid blame culture. Your workforce should know who to report a suspected data breach to (e.g. your IT team or their line manager), and the person they report it to should also know what to do. If there’s a data breach at your organisation, you only have 72 hours to report it to the ICO after becoming aware of it. Having a clear process in place for what to do in the event of a suspected data breach is vital to mitigate risks, protect your company’s reputation, and prevent further damage to any parties impacted by a data breach.

4 – Enforce password policies for your employees

While this may seem like a no-brainer, no passwords used by anyone in your organisation should be easy to crack. Your IT team and software managers should all enable strong password policies and enforce regular password changes.

There are many tools hackers use to crack passwords. One way is a brute force attack. This is where a program works through all possible alphanumeric password combinations from ‘aaaaaaa01’ to ‘zzzzzz99’. These programs can crack unsecure passwords in no time, giving hackers easy access to your accounts. Another tool hackers use are spidering applications. Hackers know that many corporate passwords are made up of words connected to the business. For example, the first line of the office address. Hackers will study your company’s online literature and enter these keywords into a custom list to speed up a brute force attack. This makes access even faster. Because of this, strong passwords are crucial in ensuring the safety of your sensitive data.

Ensure employees change their passwords regularly, and use combinations of upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. If you use words in your password, make sure they are not directly related to the nature of the business in any way. For example, if you are the owner of an e-commerce business selling printers, the password ‘printers54321’ would be easy to crack. Also, encourage employees to never use the same password for more than one work-related account. Wherever possible, you should also enforce multi-factor authentication on devices and software applications. That way, even if a password is compromised, unauthorised parties can’t get in.

You should also password-protect sensitive documents when possible, and only share these passwords with those who need direct access. Do not store them on shared public drives.

5 – Restrict access to information on a need-to-know basis

A vital and often overlooked method of prevention is access control. By restricting websites, network access, files, downloads, and databases to specific users only, you will automatically decrease the chances of a breach.

Organisations should ensure that employees only have access to the information necessary for their jobs. While this process can be time-consuming and will need regular amendments, it will mean a much lower risk of important data being seen by unintended recipients. This, in itself, would be considered a data breach. Any personal information viewed by any unauthorised or unintended person or colleague is a breach of data. This applies even when information is seen accidentally, however harmless the accident may seem. This is particularly important when it comes to special category data.

6 – Ensure the physical security of any confidential or personal information your organisation processes

Whether you’re the owner of a start-up working out of your garage or an international firm with offices around the globe, one obvious thing to consider is the physical security of your premises. To help keep your data physically secure, consider the following precautions.

• Install CCTV in all appropriate areas.
• Maintain an asset record to keep a log of all employees with key access and which company-issued devices are in the possession of which employee.
• Never share any building entry codes with guests or visitors. Meet them at the door, or if unavoidable, issue them a temporary code.
• Set up automatic locking on unattended devices and encourage employees to lock computers if they are leaving their workstation.
• Provide lockable cabinets and drawers for paperwork, laptops, drives, or other devices left on premises overnight.
• Avoid leaving any papers or devices visible from the outside of the building, especially in ground-floor offices.
• Implement a ‘Shred Everything’ policy for all paperwork which is no longer needed, with lockable confidential waste bins placed around the workspace. 

7 – Providing devices for contractors and remote workers is vital to maintain control over device security

Many organisations employ remote or hybrid workers, and many also use freelancers or contractors. While this is great for employee satisfaction, it can pose cybersecurity risks.

When working away from business premises, there are limited ways of ensuring remote workers or contractors aren’t accessing sensitive data on unsafe systems. This can make it harder to manage and prevent risks. There are also certain ethical issues. If you need to access what your employees or freelancers have been working on, there is a risk of privacy infringement by viewing materials on their personal computers.

The best way to ensure flexible workers, freelancers and contractors are accessing business records safely is by issuing company laptops and phones. These devices can be shared and signed in and out by employees when needed. Although this can be seen as an inconvenient expense for businesses, it is also the best way of keeping remote teams happy and keeping your sensitive data safe in the long run.

8 – Ensure partners, vendors, and suppliers have data protection procedures and protocols in place

When working with suppliers who may need to process or control your sensitive business information, ensure they have satisfactory systems in place. The easiest way of doing this is to look for certain accreditations.

There are four main credentials to look for that demonstrate your suppliers have an effective management system in place to protect information. These are:

• ISO 9001
• Cyber Essentials
• PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider
• Membership with trade associations that verify and regularly audit their compliance with industry standards. In the shredding industry, this would be the BSIA and UKSSA.

There is no harm in asking for a scanned certificate as proof for these accreditations, should you see fit. It is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to the potential exposure of sensitive information. You should also issue supplier questionnaires as proof that you have done your due diligence, should something go wrong.

9 – Ensure your organisation has a data retention and destruction schedule in place

We’ve spoken a lot about protecting your data. Implementing a data retention and destruction policy will help to keep information safe when it’s no longer needed. Your policy should cover paper-based and physical data, as well as data stored on devices. Only keeping information as long as necessary and securely destroying it when it’s no longer needed is a requirement of the GDPR and will help to reduce the risk of a breach.

If you’re going to outsource the destruction of confidential materials like paperwork, hard drives or IT equipment, ensure you are using a fully accredited supplier that destroys everything in line with EN 15713 standards.

At Shred Station, we are fully certified. All of our employees are security-vetted, and all materials are destroyed under constant CCTV. We also provide a Waste Transfer Note and Certificate of Destruction with every collection.

For many businesses, the responsibility of deploying cybersecurity measures can be daunting. However, small changes can make a big difference. Your team can still work flexibly and safely, without hindrance. Data breach prevention methods are numerous, and these tips are just some of the many actions you can take to enhance GDPR compliance and cybersecurity at your organisation. Once implemented, these processes are invaluable to businesses of all sizes. They can prevent risks to not only customer data, but also a company’s reputation, finances, and day-to-day processes.