Only one key employee has access to all of your small business\u2019 important online accounts: your cloud-based payroll software, Twitter account, Facebook account and bank account. That\u2019s fine. But what if that employee should die suddenly? Do you know the passwords to your company\u2019s online bank account? What about that cloud-based payroll service? And if you did, would you legally be able to access the online accounts after this employee dies?<\/p>\n
A big issue<\/strong><\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal recently covered this issue on its Web site. It may appear as if an obscure matter, something that could never impact your company. But give it some thought: How important has the cloud become to your company? How about the Web? Do you run an active social media campaign, connecting regularly with your customers? You may not be able to access your business\u2019 Twitter or Facebook sites if the only person who knew their passwords has died. Are there vendors to pay? You may not be able to if you can\u2019t gain access to your company\u2019s online bank account. And what about your workforce? They need to get paid in a timely manner, right? They might not if you suddenly can\u2019t open your company\u2019s cloud-based payroll software.<\/p>\n A trust issue<\/strong><\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal states that way too many business owners have a false sense of security when it comes to using the cloud. They don\u2019t really fear losing valuable files or data because, they assume, they\u2019re safely hidden away in the cloud. But the cloud isn\u2019t perfect. It, too, can be susceptible to hackers. And because everything stored in the cloud needs passwords, getting at important information can prove difficult if the one person who knew all those passwords suddenly dies.<\/p>\n Solving the problem<\/strong><\/p>\n The easiest fix would be to make sure that more than one employee knows the passwords that go along with your online business accounts. You can also write a list of these passwords and store it somewhere secure, such as safe. Secondly, be sure that your business\u2019 online accounts aren\u2019t registered to just a single employee. Some companies \u2013 such as Yahoo! \u2013 state that ownership of an account ends once the account holder dies. You don\u2019t want to get in a tricky legal situation. Instead, make sure that several employees \u2013 and, needless to say, yourself \u2013 have legal access to your business\u2019 key online accounts.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Only one key employee has access to all of your small business\u2019 important online accounts: your cloud-based payroll software, Twitter account, Facebook account and bank account. That\u2019s fine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-technology"],"yoast_head":"\n