5 ways for small businesses to secure customer data
If you are a small business owner doing business in 2021, one of your most important responsibilities is to secure customer data. There have been too many breaches in small business security and ransomware cases, due to which customer data has been affected. As a business, you are responsible for keeping your customers' personal data confidential and secure.
Here are the top 5 ways your small business should secure customer data.
1. Start with security
Before making any other decisions about marketing or new processes, make sure that the information you request and retain is necessary.For many people, the issue of customer data is just an afterthought, and this is where the problem lies. Before asking for more and more information about your customers, first try to figure out what kind of information you really need. Getting an email address is fine, but does a business really need their social media profiles, family history, and social security numbers?
2. Limit access
If retaining sensitive data is necessary, the next question to ask is: who will have access to this data?You need to take reasonable steps to secure customer data, and this starts with limiting the number of employees who have access to that data.
3. Use secure passwords
If a company has sensitive customer data, it should ensure that all employees who can access this data have strong passwords. These passwords must be unique, complex, and stored securely.
The FTC's Twitter investigation found that employees were allowed to use common words for administrator passwords. Remember, this type of laziness is one of the reasons why more than 100,000 IoT (Internet of Things) devices were hit in a DDoS attack last October that knocked out internet service in parts of the US. and Europe is closed. Because it is weak, easy to guess, and easy to find admin usernames and passwords, devices or websites are easy to hack.
4. Data encryption
If a business has sensitive customer data, it should not be stored in places that are easy to read and search. It is mandatory to use encryption to store and transmit sensitive data. This is one of the most common security tips for small businesses; however, many people are reluctant to follow through because it seems like a difficult and expensive undertaking.
However, it doesn't have to be that way. Small businesses can get strong protection with a VPN (Virtual Private Network) such as VPNWall. A VPN establishes a secure encrypted connection and sends Internet traffic through the VPN server. VPNs also hide users' identities, making it much harder for outside hackers to track and intercept their traffic.
VPNs are easy to set up and they have very low monthly fees - a small price to pay for the high level of security they provide.
5. Be cautious about remote access to the network
Data breaches are largely initiated by remote access - giving users access to a network while the user is not in the office.
The problem comes with ensuring that there is appropriate endpoint security. Many studies have found that the popular entertainment and restaurant company does not limit third-party access to its network. This allows hackers to easily enter and exit the company's network and steal personal information.
This is another area that can easily be secured with the use of a VPN. Instead of opening multiple entry points into a traditional private network (with each entry point being a potential security breach), you can use a VPN that acts like a single entry point. To access the internal network, users will first have to go through the VPN server.
And with powerful, secure servers like VPNWall, it makes private networks much harder to compromise.
For any small business, here are the five most important things to consider when working with sensitive data. If you are collecting and storing this personal information, you have a duty to keep customer data secure. That's why solutions like business VPNs can help protect your company from these types of threats.
