All brands and businesses have a bank of digital assets that they use for promotion, marketing, social media, and branding in general. They are essential and valuable pieces of data that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands. It’s no small feat to design graphics, logos, and social media content, and ensuring your assets are protected is vital for the growth and integrity of your business or brand.
Protecting your assets goes beyond just keeping them safe from hackers. It also includes losing your assets, having them deleted, or having them stolen by another business. Putting processes in place that ensure your assets are adequately protected will give you peace of mind and allow you to use those assets to propel your brand forward. These strategies will help you identify how your digital assets might be vulnerable and take measures to keep them secure.
Get Digital Asset Management Software
The first and most important thing you can do to protect your assets is to invest in digital asset management (DAM) software. DAM will allow you to keep all your assets in one place. Having files dotted around in random folders, external hard drives, DropBox, emails, etc. will make you more vulnerable to a breach. You can control access to your digital assets and customize the capabilities of your staff members or team. With all your assets organized in one place, you can focus all security measures on a single front, instead of everything being all over the place. You can learn more here.
Digitally Protect Assets With Encryption or Watermarking
Watermark your images to ensure that no one can reuse them. It’s an incredibly effective strategy for any content you publish on social media platforms or your website. Your images may come up in a Google image search and end up being used by another source. Someone could also simply copy your images off social media and try to post it as their own. Watermarks can prevent that.
Where digital assets like logos, graphics, and branding are concerned, make sure they are all encrypted. An encrypted file will only allow access with a security code or password. That means only those with the codes will be able to open and utilize those assets. It’s the best way to keep your most valuable brand assets safe and secure.
Written Policies, NDAs, and NCAs
If you work with others, including clients and staff, you must have procedures in place that protect your digital assets. For anyone who has access to your assets, make sure they sign an NDA, a non-compete, and agree to strict policies regarding your work. It’s also crucial that you set clear policies as to where your clients can use your assets. Employees should thoroughly understand the risks of a data breach and how you are working to prevent them. It’s also important they know how you use your assets and where they should use them. Often an employee slip-up is the easiest way for cybercriminals to steal through the cracks and access your data.
