Protecting Your Customers' Data During the Holidays

Is your business busy during the holiday season? Keep your customers’ data secure during and after transactions to protect them.

Before you delve into data security tips for a digitally safe holiday season, let’s take a look at some of the pitfalls that can hurt your business during the festivities:

Digital Disasters That Will Impact Your Business

Ransomware

Ransomware is a malicious software that prevents you from accessing your business website unless you pay a ransom. It can infect your computer or system when you access infected websites.

According to data from the IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2021 report, ransomware attacks cost businesses $4.62 million.

Data Breach

A data breach is when sensitive or confidential data is accessed, copied, stolen, or used by an unauthorized individual. What’s unfortunate about this is that data breaches can happen accidentally, especially when employees are distracted by the holiday rush.

The same IBM report mentioned above states that data breaches cost businesses $4.24 million in 2021, a 9.8% increase from 2020 figures.

Phishing

Phishing is a cyber attack where messages via email or live chat may appear legitimate will encourage you to click on a link that will steal your login or bank card details. Unfortunately, even when you read the message carefully, you might still not know immediately when you have been tricked.

Natural Calamities

The Holidays are often associated with cold weather, which can go extreme in some cases. Snowstorms, cyclones, and floods can destroy your servers and facilities where you store your business files. Earthquakes are even more unpredictable, and they can also cause damage to both your physical store (if you have one) and the equipment used for your business.

Reassuring Data Security Over the Holidays

How should businesses like yours maintain trust among customers when it comes to their data? Here’s how you can do your part in reassuring data security for them:

Secure Your Server

Your server is the most important part to consider, especially for brands that handle digital transactions. Follow these steps to protect your server from being intrusions:
- Update your operating system and apps
- Invest in antivirus and anti-spyware packages
- Use a firewall
- Enforce the use of complex passwords, two-factor authentication, and encryption

Reduce the Required Information for Orders

One way to elevate trust among your customers is to stop asking too much personal information when they make purchases. Customers are puzzled by sites that ask for their birth date, email address, or even an office phone number when they just want to buy something.

Don’t Keep Your Customers’ Payment Information

Scammers can’t steal something you don’t have. To make sure cyber criminals can’t steal your customer’s information, why not just refrain from recording payment information in the first place?

Better yet, you can partner with a company that is certified by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). A PCI DSS certification means a business’ infrastructure, policies, and data protection strategies are secure and can be trusted to keep user information safe.

Scan Your Website for Any Vulnerabilities

Cyber attacks may take place through your business’ legitimate website. Clone phishing, for example, is an attack where the hacker intercepts an interaction between the victim and a business. Luckily, there are applications that can detect activities and system vulnerabilities that can affect you and your customers. Conduct these scans daily and be notified of any possible weak spots.

Have a Protocol Ready for When Digital Disasters Happen

It’s critical to develop business continuity and disaster recovery response protocols for when a cyber attack happens in your business. If you have a team of workers helping you out, orient them on what to do when a scammer manages to get in your digital infrastructure.

Of course, it would help if you have a system in place that will keep your business operating even while under a cyber attack or immediately after the issue has been resolved. You can then focus on recovery while still tending to your customers.

Partner with a Secure Outsourcing Firm

One way to make your holidays stress-free is to outsource your data security jobs to a trusted company that can manage your customers’ data for you. No need to worry about data security if your partner company has the best practices and resources in that aspect.

A good outsourcing firm would take care of the implementation and maintenance of data security. It also makes sure that they comply with data security standards and best practices.

Open Access BPO has a robust data security ecosystem that ensures the safety and privacy of the critical information of our partners and their customers. Outsource with confidence with our customer support, content moderation, back office, and knowledge process support solutions.