Season's Security Greetings: 12 Holiday Tips To Keep Your Data Safe

'Tis the season -- for holiday time off, extended trips, office parties... and security negligence. Time to tighten the defenses and clamp down on the user indulgences. No Grinch or Scrooge stuff here: Just a few tips for keeping your workplace systems and data safe, as well as merry and bright.As the holiday season moves into fuller swing, take some time to make sure the festivities aren't interrupted by security breaches that could have been avoided.

Here are a dozen holiday security tips to consider:

1. Disconnect computers whose users are going to be away from the office for more than a day or so. Not only safer than leaving them connected, but saves energy too, if your employees are in the habit of powering down rather than shutting off.

2. Reinforce remote security rules for employees who will be traveling with work and devices carrying data. Insure that materials are encrypted and the the devices are guarded by a full array of up-to-date A-V and other defenseware, as well as strong (and preferably new) passwords.

3. Work from home safely and securely. As with mobile devices holding business data, any employee's home systems that will be used (even theoretically) for work should be up-to-date with all defenses.

4. Watch the party-time computer hi jinks. Whether or not the computer has completely replaced the copier as party tech is hard to say, but be alert for prohibited and inappropriate content (hint: guys standing around a monitor and laughing) that a) has no business in your business, b) may be illegal and c) probably contains malware links. (Okay, maybe that one was a little Scrooge-esque, but that doesn't make it bad advice.)

5. Open greeting cards that come in the mail -- not in e-mail. The deluge of holiday malware holiday e-cards is larger than ever: Tell your employees to delete all without opening.