Security for almost the whole history of the internet has been a hot topic. These days, whether you are involved in politics, in a business like a translation business, or you are concerned about your own computer or laptop, there have been more real security issues threatening our data that has ever been seen before.

Translation services may be a more likely target

All sorts of business and organizations, including multinational corporations throughout the world, use translation services to translate key documents that need to be circulated amongst people who don’t speak English. There are huge numbers of documents and files transiting the internet from one server to another every day. This is just the sort of place a commercial spy could hack and try to access financial details of these well-heeled clients who request translations.

There are 3 key areas that need to be considered

1. Data protection is an important concern so much so that the EU has implemented strict data protection laws such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from May 2018. This makes it an offense if a business fails to protect any EU citizens’ personal data and other information. It has to be stored, used and transmitted only under strict rules. For translation businesses that handle translations for private individuals, this means having suitable security measures in place to protect customers.

2. Cybercrime is on the rise and it doesn’t just affect governments and other well-known organizations but even SMEs which make up many translation businesses are facing problems with cybercriminals who are planting viruses, closing down websites, hacking into systems and even going as far as stealing data and asking for ransoms. This is now referred to as “cyberextortion.” This is certainly not the time to under-invest in following the correct IT security protocols.

3. Industrial espionage is on the increase as companies are increasingly paying individuals to steal information about competitors. This means stealing designs, plans, documents, and proposals. It’s not only about hacking servers and copying files but much more serious as sometimes undercover spies are planted into businesses so they can steal files. Employees are even being bribed to make copies of key information. Translators are quite obvious targets as often they don’t have the most sophisticated of security measures to protect their LSP clients. They commonly work at home with little or no security in place.
Maintaining a high level of security for both translators and clients is a high priority for all translation companies. One of the most important steps is to ensure translators know when something unusual is taking place on their computer so a security alert can be put in place.