Protecting Your Customers Against Cybercrime

By Jake Anderson

Ecommerce shoppers have stated security is one of their primary concerns about shopping online in survey after survey, meanwhile, the cost of cybercrime is projected to exceed six trillion dollars annually by 2021.

The plausibility of this becomes undeniable when consider the likes of the CIA has been hacked. In an environment such as this, protecting your customers against cybercrime becomes paramount to the successful functioning of your business.

Here’s what you need to do.

Maintain Situational Awareness

You need to know what kind of data you’re protecting before you can implement adequate security measures. You’ll most likely be dealing with credit card numbers and banking information as an ecommerce merchant. Of course, your employee personal information is likely to be in your database as well.

You’ll need to conform to PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) to accept credit cards. Fortunately, advanced platforms like the Shopify website builder usually come with these measures built-in.

Still, it’s important to recognize you might also be held financially liable if a breach occurs and it can be proven your security was lax.

Implement Security Measures Immediately

Whenever a new tactic proves effective, the software’s vendor writes code to prevent that particular hack from happening again. Basically, it’s like creating a vaccine for a known illness. If you perform the update as soon as possible (get vaccinated) the likelihood of you contracting the disease too is minimized.

You should also employ firewalls and antivirus protection, in addition to requiring all employees to create unique passwords that can’t be associated with any aspect of their personal lives.

Administrative rights should be issued only to those who absolutely need them, and data should be backed up as often as possible — but at the end of each workday at a minimum.

All data and machines should be encrypted and password-protected. Dissuade employees from downloading customer records to smartphones or any other portable devices.

Probe Your Defenses

Hire a team to come in and try to crack your system. If they’re successful, these firms will tell you how they did it and recommend methods by which you can foil anyone trying to follow the same path.

Require Multifactor Authentication

Every device should require the clearing of a secondary security hurdle before entry is granted. Too many organizations rely upon a single password. Meanwhile, the more hoops through which you make users jump for access, the more difficult it will be for usurpers to attack your system.

Multi-factor Authentication can be any two of the following:

(A.) Something you know (a password for example)

(B) Something in your possession (a token or a code sent to a mobile device).

(C.) Something you are (a fingerprint, retinal scan or facial recognition).

Securing your system this way reduces the risk of an external hack significantly.

Train Your Staff

Assign a member of your team to become the security specialist and keep up with all developments in the security realm. Document all of your procedures and use that tome to train all of your people.

Additionally, make violating security protocols a terminable offense.

Hold monthly security meetings in which you go over all of the procedures employees are expected to follow. Workers will take security only as seriously as you make it seem.

Maintain Cybersecurity Insurance

Your business insurance policy should cover data breaches. Benefits should include financial losses associated with them as well as costs related to ransomware attacks and business interruption.

Enacting these measures should provide a solid layer of defense when it comes to protecting your customers against cybercrime. Hackers tend to go after the easiest targets they can find. These efforts will give them reason to leave you alone and go after someone else.

About the Author

Awestruck by Star trek as a kid, Jake Anderson has been relentless in his pursuit for covering the big technological innovations which will shape the future. A self-proclaimed gadget freak, he loves getting his hands on every piece of gadget he can afford.