It’s necessary to take contract cybersecurity into account when developing your company’s strategy towards contract lifecycle management. Prevent yourself from cyberattacks and data breaches by empowering yourself with the following knowledge and by staying well-informed of some red flags that we’ll discuss below. Due to the confidential nature of contracts, it’s clear why cybercriminals aim to access, steal, and divulge sensitive contract content.
To ensure your organization’s contract data is secure, take all necessary actions to increase your cybersecurity organization-wide. Cyberattacks and breaches are expensive, and the lasting damages can persist for long periods of time. Be proactive and implement all preventative measures early on to protect your contracts and their sensitive contents from malicious actors. We’ll discuss several ways your organization can step up its cybersecurity as well as why implementing contract lifecycle management software can support your cybersecurity efforts.
As the number of ransomware and malware attacks have increased, it’s essential to maximize your cybersecurity strategy in every way possible, as a data breach can cost your organization hundreds upon thousands of dollars. From costs regarding detection, downtime, lost customers, and reputational damage, the financial detriment of these attacks can be unsurmountable.
Content-
- Why Cyberattackers Want to Steal Your Contract Data
- What Leads to a Breach of Contract Data During a Cyberattack?
- How Can I Strengthen Contract Cybersecurity in My Organization?
- Maximize Contract Cybersecurity With Dock 365
Why Cyberattackers Want to Steal Your Contract Data
Cyberattackers solely desire to steal your contract data so they can use it for their ill intent, whether it be to sell your data illegally or to attain trade secrets. In the case of attackers leveraging ransomware, these cybercriminals will keep your data hostage, threatening to only return it with the payment of a ransom.
At the end of the day, cyberattacks are carried out with the intention of compromising your data in some fashion. Here are some common pieces of confidential contract data that cybercriminals aim to obtain:
- Personal client and supplier information
- Financial and banking information
- Legal data
- Private business data
Every contract includes various pieces of highly sensitive information, and cyberattackers who gain access to this information can sell this data to others on the dark web. This poses significant issues to your organization, your vendors and suppliers, clients, and employees. A breach of data can drive up risk and significantly increase the potential for noncompliance in accordance with industry standards and regulations. This subjects you to numerous fines and associated penalties.
What Leads to a Breach of Contract Data During a Cyberattack?
Cyberattackers can breach your sensitive contract information due to the following circumstances:
- Phishing
- Human error
- Poor password strength
- Password stealing
- Lack of data encryption
- Internal actors (i.e., upset current and former employees)
- Unnecessary extra permissions
- Malware
- System vulnerabilities
If your organization’s contract lifecycle management is suboptimal and not equipped with the proper security features, these risks are dramatically increased. When contracts undergo their lifecycle and are shared in your organization internally for reviews, approvals, and signing, contract risk increases as each document is moved from location to location, rather than being stored and secured in a single digital location that is accessible only to authorized users.
How Can I Strengthen Contract Cybersecurity in My Organization?
Here are our top suggestions to boost contract cybersecurity in your organization by using contract management software:
1. Require A User Authentication Rule
Every business account should be protected by a strong, complex password that is hard to guess. We recommend requiring your employees to create passwords that contain a variety of characters that are a mixture of various symbols, upper- and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers on all of their accounts and electronic devices. We also suggest creating a schedule to plan ahead for your employees to change their passwords on a consistent basis. Another great way to increase security is by leveraging a multi-factor authentication tool and single sign-on (SSO).
With contract management software, you can utilize powerful user authentication features to configure complex passwords, enable user permissions, and define rules for role-based access.
2. Consistently Update Your Company’s Hardware and Software
Cybercriminals attain access to your confidential contract data by finding security loopholes in your system hardware and software. To protect your company against these attacks, ensure that all of your hardware, software, and associated devices are consistently updates with the most up to date security upgrades.
Here at Dock 365, our contract management system is a cloud-based contract lifecycle management platform built on your current Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint infrastructure for a cost-efficient and secure approach to overseeing your contracts. This way, you’ll have the confidence knowing that your contracts and associated private documents are kept secure 24/7 in a centralized, digital contract repository.
3. Store Contracts In A Cloud Secure Centralized Contract Repository
Contracts that are shared throughout your organization can pose significant risks. By distributing your contracts and sending them to various places internally, you run the risk of losing the document or of becoming a target to cyberattackers. By storing your company’s contracts in a digital, centralized repository, you ensure that only authorized users can gain access through the cloud. Here at Dock, we use your SharePoint to support your contract storage, offering a single source of truth and single location for contract storage and management. Keeping your contracts within your cloud secure repository also supports your authorized employees and users in easily accessing, searching, and retrieving exact contracts, clauses, and relevant data so they can generate reports and gain key insights on contract performance and status.
4. Implement Data Encryption
By encrypting your contract data, you ensure that only authorized users with the appropriate decryption key can view and read your data. In the case an unauthorized user attempts to access a piece of encrypted data, they will only encounter digital nonsense. Due to this, any stored contract and contract under construction should be encrypted at rest and in transit with the most current encryption technologies to protect against hacking attempts.
5. Create Restrictions on Access
Only a select handful of individuals in your company should have access to your contracts. By placing restrictions on access to your company contracts, you safeguard against an internal actor capitalizing on an opportunity to act upon ulterior motives. You can use the contract access privilege settings to customize which users have access to which contracts, meaning your employees only gain access to specific contracts that are needed for their individual roles and responsibilities.
With contract management software, you can support your contract lifecycle management with an easy-to-use interface equipped with role- and feature-based user permissions. This empowers business owners and contract managers the ability to delegate roles and contract accessibility appropriately to build contract security and enhance the user experience.
6. Adopt A Contract Lifecycle Management Solution
The best way to enhance the security of your contracts and to reduce the likelihood of a contract cybersecurity attack is by implementing contract lifecycle management (CLM) software. With a dedicated and proven contract management system, you can protect your confident contract information while automating tasks and processes. This can ultimately support you in improving productivity and reducing contract lifecycle times by standardizing the contract workflow, and thus produce and execute more contracts in less time.
Maximize Contract Cybersecurity With Dock 365
Ready to improve your organization’s contract cybersecurity? Then look no further than Dock 365. With our Contract Management System, you can automate and streamline your contract lifecycles while keeping documents secure in a centralized, cloud-based repository. Our solution supports your risk mitigation efforts and helps safeguard against breaches of contract data. In addition, you’ll find that you’ll substantially cut costs, improve efficiency, maximize your return on investment, and extract more value out of each contract.
Learn more about our Dock 365 Contract Management System here.
Learn more about Contract Lifecyle Management (CLM) Software here.
For more information, we welcome you to schedule a free demo with us today.
