A Guide For Protecting Your Customers’ Information

In 2015, the average cost of a data breach was $154 per person affected, a IBM and Ponemon Institute study found.

Large-scale data breaches could cost a company millions or, using the average numbers, maybe billions in revenue and compensation. This pales to the impact it can have on brand trust and the perception of consumer safety. For companies that need to collect customer data, keeping it safe is critically important to the business.

Make It Part of the Job

Employees are both the gatekeepers and the weak links of data protection. Training and adequate safety procedures go a long way to making your workers capable of staving off data threats. According to the Journal of Management Studies, one of the biggest issues with data security and employees is that the employee needs to make a choice between normal job functions and data safety. The procedures are often not integrated into normal work flow, so a conflict arises, forcing the worker to decide between completing a job required task or the data safety task. This conflict has to be removed to keep your information secure. Prioritize data safety and monitor the amount of time that workers need to devote it.

Backups Save

There is a lot of technology out there to protect data, the most important of which is a good data backup system. As part of a sustainability plan, information backups should be regularly scheduled, secure and offsite. Cloud-based backups are best because they allow access to the information even in cases of extreme local disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. How often you back up the records will depend on how often the datasets change. If you collect information daily, then it should happen every day.

Stay Healthy

Most companies are pretty good about maintaining virus protection on their in-house computers. It is the mobile devices, smartphones and tablets that businesses tend to forget. Unlike desktops, mobile devices are almost constantly online and they use a variety of different networks. Virus protection for mobile devices are available for different operating systems, with 360 Security and Lookout Mobile Security being two of the top-used solutions.

Importance Of Encryption

Securely moving data from one place to another is a matter of encryption. The more sensitive the data, the stronger the encryption needs to be. Encryption methodology comes in several flavors. The most common is Data Encryption Standards in which the sender and receiver each have a key to the encryption code. The methods become increasingly more difficult to crack by changing the way the key is generated, making the key dynamic or removing it completely from the algorithm. The best encryption methods are ones that are specific to you company and its client base.

Other Bells and Whistles

Consumer safety products are too numerous to list. Biometrics will lock down a mobile device, keeping data safe in the case that it is lost or stolen. Double entry codes with increase your security profile but slow down work. It all depends on the needs of the company.