With Home Depot's latest corporate hacking still makingheadlines in the wake of millions of customers' credit cardinformation being compromised, increased attention has once againturned to best practices in keeping client and customer datasafe.

Experts will tell you that the sad truth is, if a skilled datathief wants your organization's information badly enough, chancesare he's eventually going to find a way to get it. But that doesn'tmean you have to make it easy for them.

Click through to learn 10 helpful ways to prevent a data breach,courtesy of Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB) and Trail of Bits.

1. Outsource payment processing. Avoid handlingcard data on your own. Reputable vendors, whether it's forPoint-of-Sale or web payments, have dedicated security staff thatcan protect that data better than you can.

2. Separate social media from financialactivity. Use a dedicated device for online banking. Use adifferent device for email and social media. Otherwise, justvisiting one infected social site could compromise your bankingmachine and your savings account.

3. Think beyond passwords. Never reuse them anddon't trust any website to store them securely. You can never tellwhen a website has already been hacked and your password has beenexposed. Set up a two-factor authentication; this sends a secretcode to your phone verifying your identity.

4. Educate and train employees. Establish awritten policy about data security, and communicate it to allemployees. Educate employees about what types of information aresensitive or confidential and what their responsibilities are toprotect that data. Also, most scams and malicious attacks arrivethrough email so be sure your team is prepared and alerts otherswhen they are received.

5. Stay informed. Evaluate the entirechain of events in a potential attack. From assessing your emailinfrastructure to your users' responsiveness to your browser'svulnerability, identify where your organization is most at risk.Then, question the security posture of your business lines,vendors, suppliers or partners.

6. Stop transmission of data that is notencrypted. Mandate encryption of all data. This includesdata at “rest” and “in motion.” Also consider encrypting emailwithin your company if personal information is transmitted. Avoidusing Wi-Fi networks; they may permit interception of data.

7. Secure your browser. With the growingpopularity of watering holes – malicious code installed on trustedwebsites – how do you know which websites you can trust? Forgetindividual patches. Focus on keeping up to date with the latestversion of your browser. Then, test your browser's configurationfor weakness.

8. Secure your operating system. It's fareasier to break into older operating systems like Windows XP or OSX 10.6. Take advantage of major security improvements baked intonewer operating systems.

9. Secure your router. It connects yourcomputer to the Internet. Make sure someone can't intercept all thedata sent through it. It's important to set a strong admin passwordon your router and a WPA2 password on your Wi-Fi.

10. Secure your data. Whether you lose data toan accident or an attack, you'll always be glad to have a backup.Ideally, your backups should be encrypted and off-site in casethere's a fire or burglary.