Protecting digital assets: People & Companies

Machine shops need lots of tangible assets to make parts: machine tools, cutting tools and real estate, among other items.

When loaning money, financial institutions favor this type of collateral because it provides a level of comfort some nonmanufacturing clients can’t offer. While a shop’s tangible assets increase the value of the company, another asset may be as or even more valuable—digital records.

Whether it is used to run the entire operation via enterprise resource planning or just run spreadsheets, a shop’s IT infrastructure is invaluable and must be protected. Nearly every company activity—such as emails, drawings, documents, POs, forms and contracts—are generated, transmitted and recorded on various digital devices, servers or, perhaps, cloud storage services. Those records must be secure.

A well-managed IT infrastructure is vital for all companies, but even more so for machine shops, which typically must maintain extensive records about their operations.

While data security is an obvious concern, it’s shocking how many shops fail to protect records and monitor employee computer activity. For example, some employees with computer privileges can quickly learn what information is accessible and find holes in your system. Some of these users may become careless and inadvertently expose a shop’s network to damage, such as viruses that compromise or remove data.