Safeguarding your customer’s data is vital for one good cause: your business relies on it, entirely. Now that you know that your customer’s data security is something that they are too keen about, adding a few pillars to ensure their safety should not be a lot to ask.
With the advent of cybercrime being a big business these days, protecting their data has indeed become a big concern for all.
Every piece of data you store and collect from your customer is subjected to intense security and can begin from as trivial as an email address. Yes, a simple piece of data such as an email ID needs to be protected as well.
Here are some stats that second this thought:
A report by PWC suggests that only 25% of the customers think that the companies take note of their personal information and data cautiously. The same report also says that only 10% believe that they have complete control of the data they share out. Simultaneously, only 69% of them have stated that companies are vulnerable to cybercrime threats.
Further, protecting consumer data falls on the company’s shoulders and not the Government is what 72% of the users have to say.
To save you from further losses, apprehensions, and embarrassment, here we enlist five such typical pillars that have stood against cybercrime tests and can keep the customer information safe.
Let’s learn them in detail.
- Restrict access to Customer’s Data
- Password Management Tools to the Rescue
- Yes to the SSL Certificates, right away!
- Steer away from the Data Silos
- Update Yourself with the Emerging Security Trends
Restrict access to Customer’s Data
Look at this in a simple algorithm – the lesser you grant access to your customer’s information, the less you stand a chance to get leaked. Start adding extra layers of security. Now, this can be done by implementing authentication and authorization practices to augment the data security score. Some of these include asking for an OTP (One Time Password). It can also entail a biometric data feed with a fingerprint or be a token-based authentication process too.
Better yet, to ensure the top-most safety, try adding multi-factor authentication (MFA) into your systems. This is where the user must go through multiple rounds of verification before they can be granted access. Note that not every member of your marketing team needs access to each piece of data you are collecting.
Use employee permissions in your small business POS to limit data access and protect your shoppers.
Having a fewer number of accessed employees lessens the average risk of internal data abuse too. Say, you have ten user accounts that have complete control over your analytics tool. In simpler terms, this means that you have ten insecure points of vulnerability standing your way. Therefore, the data security of your clients lies totally in your hands. It is up to you to decide how much access you wish to give away to your employees. Train the employees that do have access in the fundamentals of cyber security and data privacy.
Password Management Tools to the Rescue
As just discussed, the 10 points of insecurities, now imagine if we were to safeguard each of these 10 points with a password, would that serve the purpose? Yes, why not! You can almost cut down on the risks of cybercrime to instead use a password management tool. With these tools, they can create and amass complicated passwords for all the software used by your teams.
The human brain is not designed to remember too many complex passwords for each of these tools, well unless you are a prodigy. That is when these management tools immensely come to help. Not just that, they make it simple to use as they encrypt and store every password used. Once this has been encrypted, it becomes impossible for a third-party source to read it without having access to an encryption key.
That way, whenever an employee wishes to log in into the systems, they can instantly pull the password manager’s login credentials, and they do not have the by-heart password. Get yourself one of these passwords managing software and bid goodbyes to the reckless hassles of the data leak.
Yes to the SSL Certificates, right away!
Gaining the trust of a customer is a prime affair. It also simmers down and converts to void, if your customers don’t trust you. Now that the entirety of your business depends entirely on you, you will have to push the extra nudge to ensure that they do not churn just yet. One of the best ways to keep that on track is by getting an SSL Certificate from CheapSSLShop.
These certificates render you with umpteen data protection and make it impossible for the hacker to break into your data. Further, it will add a denotation of HTTPS URL instead of HTTP. The extra ‘S’ at the end of the URL signifies to the users that you are a trustworthy site and that their shopping experience with you has got nothing to worry about.
You can find an eclectic range of these certificates and choose the one which best fits your purpose. Without having one of these, will put your business in jeopardy and the cybercriminals can pounce on to your system seamlessly, without you being aware of the mess in any form.
Steer away from the Data Silos
Data Silos account for the biggest fear that a marketer can think of in the online e-commerce business. It is not only cynically vile for the data of the client but also can put you in significant vulnerabilities. Silos generally refer to data being distributed and stored at different places. And when a sensitive piece of information is being stored at several locations, you can well imagine the kind of security entailed with it.
Further, when you amass data in an unapproved, unauthorized place, you may also lose most of all of the data. This brings us to a situation where you might not be aware enough about when you get a data breach from such places. Hence, it is of high pertinence that you call upon a data management strategy. Deploying these strategies will detail out where and how data is being handled.
Additionally, this will enable you to track your data and know where you are storing and collecting them. This would not only be effective in reducing your data breach, but now you have full control over your data losses. Trust me; this will make your lives a lot simpler.
Update Yourself with the Emerging Security Trends
It is a given that technology today is on a constant change. And it is the need of the hour to keep yourself consistently updated with the changes, provided if you wish to stay on top of the game. Now that the cybercrime business is booming the market, it has become more critical to secure your data, now more than ever. To begin with, update your system and computer before it glares an outdated notification.
You have no idea how easy it turns out to be for a hacker to feast on all your data if they see that your system is outdated. Moreover, install a high-rated anti-virus tool on your system and stay away from the mundane, trivial attacks that might transfer even from a pen-drive! Also, note that just because you have had a security plan once does not entitle you with a ‘done forever’ note. You must know that the cybercriminal industry is equally evolving, and you must know how to weather the storm, well in advance.
Once you do that, regularly evaluate your approach to protect your consumer data. Always be on the lookout for any potential attacks and then adapt to the safety precautions accordingly. Come what may, bring out your best, and be prepared for the worst.
That’s a Wrap
As we are slowly striving into the world of e-commerce, we are paving the way for more information to go online. Security has become a hot point of discussion and the customer today wishes to see no back seats in their data.
However, this has brought out an unfortunate situation for us users, but a gem opportunity for the hackers to take their business onto a larger-than-life level.
On similar tracks, know that a consumer does deserve the highest form of trust and safety from your company. The responsibility falls on your shoulders to guarantee them exemption from expensive data reaches under any costs. And there is no time better than now to start delving into the security facets. If you have not evaluated the data protection measures, these five pillars would immensely help you get started. On an additional note, show your customers that you are serious in the business and are here to stay.
Choose the right business software that not only aligns with your business needs but also helps you secure customer data. Software like point of sale software is quite common in businesses and you need to validate whether or not it has necessary security features.
This won’t boost their confidence and let them often revert and do more business with you. It is your customers that make or break your business. Whatever you do is for their benefits which in a way converts to your success.
