Keeping others aware of the latest business continuity plan will reduce the chances of data breaches at your company.

How to prevent data breaches at your business

Organizations are constantly trying to improve security at their offices, but somehow break-ins continue to occur. Companies of any size and in any industry can be subjected to a data breach. Last week, California's attorney general confirmed 131 breaches occurred in the state in 2012.

The hard part is there is no perfect formula to stop an employee from transferring confidential data into the wrong hands or keeping hackers from surpassing encrypted information. However, what businesses from all industries can do is implement a comprehensive strategy that heavily reduces the chances of becoming victims of a data breach.

Harvard Business Review contributors Tucker Bailey and Josh Brandley explained that one of the common mistakes businesses make is that they do not maintain their business continuity plan. Neglecting to inform other offices about their course of action reduces the validity of the process. Bailey and Brandley outlined some tips on how to improve these plans.

Handing over responsibility: Choose an individual or a team of personnel to be responsible for sharing the plan across different departments. This will ensure that all employees know their role(s) within disaster recovery planning to streamline training and eventual follow through.

Quick response guides: Always plan for smaller scale concerns. Sometimes a data breach could be an individual stealing one folder full of files.

Establish relationships with security and emergency responders: Local police officers and the business' security staff should collaborate on what to do when an emergency happens.

Business continuity consultants that specialize in disaster recovery can create plans tailored to their specific needs.