Concomitant document risks

Any "civilized" organization seeks to organize its workflow in the best possible way, if possible, takes all reasonable and affordable measures to protect documents from unwanted interference by unauthorized persons. What is it about?

Everybody knows that the document circulation carries the corresponding risks from third parties. There are a lot of them. Let's pay attention to the most significant and widespread ones. The risks associated with document circulation are:

1. Risks of disclosure of confidential information
2. The risks of document substitution

Risks of disclosure of confidential information

Confidential information in this context should be understood in the broad sense of the word, namely as information classified as restricted access. The importance of confidential information is evidenced by the fact that there is a fairly extensive legislative base regarding this issue.

Here are just some of the laws that partially or completely regulate this sphere:

1. Federal Law of 29.07.2004 N 98-FZ "On Trade Secret" (commercial secret).
2. Federal Law of July 27, 2006 N 152-FZ "On Personal Data" (personal data).
3. Federal Law of 02.12.1990 No. 395-1 "On Banks and Banking Activities" (bank secrecy).
4. Federal Law of 31.05.2002 N 63-FZ "On advocacy and legal profession in the Russian Federation" (a lawyer's secret).

The risks associated with document circulation are very often encountered in entrepreneurial activities. This is something like "production costs", without which we can not do, but which can be controlled and "driven" to reasonable limits. Otherwise, it just might not be good for business as a whole.

Disclosure of any confidential information can lead to quite tangible losses for the enterprise. The most common threats are employee negligence and information theft. To prevent this, it is recommended to implement the document circulation according to the rules strictly imposed by the enterprise, which you set yourself at your own discretion. For example, you can apply a certain fixation of the passage and location of each contract at the enterprise or introduce personal and mandatory responsibility for the safety and accounting of contracts, as well as the procedure for handling them. It would be superfluous to conduct systematic checks at the enterprise for the existence of relevant contracts. In any case, stringent requirements to the conditions of storage of contracts and permitting access to them are necessary, without which the security of documents is difficult to imagine.

The risks of document substitution  

The most vulnerable, in my opinion, in this issue are, of course, contracts, as documents that are the legal basis for conducting business transactions in accounting and tax accounting.

Most of the legal disputes over the falsification of documents, namely, the substitution of the contract, could have been avoided if the parties, during the conclusion of the treaty, had taken a number of simple measures to protect it against third-party interference.

The newest information technologies, oddly enough, allow, on the one hand, to protect documents from their substitution, on the other - to implement this substitution at a high, professional level. And this is a fact. Moreover, to be completely honest, no one will give you one hundred percent protection, but this does not mean that you should not take any reasonable actions to protect the documents. Of course, it is necessary! In particular, contracts, since they are the ones that are most often affected (not counting the primary).

You can use different methods and methods from substituting documents. First, pay attention to the old, time-tested tools designed to protect documents from spoofing. Do not neglect them. They are quite effective and at the same time simple.

Here are just a few of them:

• Signing by the parties of each sheet of the contract.
• Contract firmware.
• Use of special paper for contracts.

The best way to protect the contract is to combine different ways.

Following this methodology when concluding contracts is not a formality or a tribute to fashion. In the Russian business environment, this is an urgent necessity. Even simple signing by the parties of each leaf of the contract gives enough reliable protection of the contract from substitution.

In addition, modern technologies can also be used. They, despite their seeming complexity, provide tremendous opportunities for modern business. For example, the use of seals in contracts with a hidden image is a vivid example of this. I can say without exaggeration that this is one of the best ways to protect yourself from scammers. The essence of it is that some hidden image is put on the contract, usually in the press itself. The usual eye is not visible, and special devices like magnifying glass, etc., will not help here. A hidden image can be seen only by means of a special, so to speak, "control template", which is only available to the print owner. This is a kind of "key" that determines the authenticity of the press.

The risks of disclosure of confidential information and the risks of document substitution are not the only risks that are associated with document circulation, but the most common and easily adjustable.

In this regard, ways to protect contracts from interference by third parties are sufficient, but their effectiveness is truly manifested in their integrated application, taking into account the place, time and importance of the transaction.