6 ways to protect your user data and your company's reputation.

When you run an online business, the wolves are always lurking at your door. Of course, we’re not talking about actual wolves; we’re referring to the legions of digital predators who are working 24/7 to infiltrate your systems in order to steal valuable customer data.

Although you can never completely guarantee that the precautions you take will work well all the time, putting the following actions in effect can markedly reduce your chances of becoming the next victim of ecommerce cybercrime.

Understand what you are up against.

There are many different ways that your business can be attacked by online criminals. The most common include the following.

• Stolen information due to employee carelessness or deliberate actions. This can occur if one of your staff members leaves a device, computer, or file out in the open and vulnerable for thievery. On the other hand, disgruntled or unscrupulous workers might take data on purpose.
• Ransomware. In this type of malware attack, a criminal denies you access to your own data by encrypting it. You are then told that the only way you can get it back is to pay a fee. Even if you do, you have no way of knowing that the information will be returned or that it will not be made public later anyway.
• Brute-force attacks. These take advantage of weak passwords that the criminal guesses. Once this happens, they gain instant access to your private customer information.
• Keylogger malware attacks. These record users’ keystrokes and provide access to passwords, credit card details, and anything else you might type into your company computers or onto personal PCs logged into your systems.
• Phishing. Perpetrators of these attacks construct sites that appear to be from legitimate third-party companies. When users click on them and divulge the requested account information, hackers can usurp your security and gain entry into your networks.
• Viruses and other malware. These infiltrate your systems when users click on links infected with them. In many cases, the result is the deletion of all your data, including customer or patient details.
• Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Mostly directed against larger companies, these occur when an attacker accesses your site from multiple sources simultaneously. Although data is not usually lost, this situation usually means that a business needs to close down until the breach has been addressed.

Now that we have reviewed the most common types of data incursions, it’s time to learn what you can do to prevent them.

1. Only store essential data.

Data provides you with a gold mine of information about your customers, which is why it is so tempting to think that the more you have, the better it is for your company. The problem is that having a huge storehouse of information makes your business very vulnerable if you are the victim of hackers.

A better solution is to keep only the bare bones of customer information on your own servers. Hire a third-party company to store details such as email addresses and credit card and billing information for marketing campaigns. In addition to reducing the effects of a data breach, taking this track keeps you in compliance with privacy laws and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

2. Use data encryption.

As soon as someone divulges personal details to you, they are entrusting you with keeping those facts and numbers safe. Data encryption is a highly effective way of masking this information by turning it into ciphertext that can only be accessed with specific keys.

There are two types of encryptions.

• Asymmetric encryption. This requires a public key to encrypt but a private key to decrypt data.
• Symmetric encryption. This method requires only one key to both encrypt and decrypt data. Although security is lower with this method, it is faster and more efficient.

3. Employ SSL.

Standard encryption is not enough to protect your customer data. In addition, you need to use a secure socket layer (SSL) to encrypt the data as it flows from your server to the user’s browser. SSL works to authenticate the server to make sure that the user is communicating with the correct party. As a result, the digital conversation is kept private from man-in-the-middle attackers attempting to snoop and steal valuable details.

4. Use a firewall.

Think of a firewall as the first line of defense for your systems and the data they hold. It guards the doorway of your network, protecting you from unwanted traffic, SQL injection, and DDoS attacks. This shield also helps to safeguard your systems against destructive viruses that can be sent from anywhere in the world.

5. Use secure payment methods.

When you implement secure payment processing systems and protocols, you are actively demonstrating your commitment to data integrity. For instance, 3-D Secure payments mean that customers may be asked to provide additional information before their transaction is approved.

While this added step may be perceived by some as inconvenient, it serves to protect both merchant and buyer from identity theft and other kinds of data crimes. Customers are more likely to feel positive about this process if you explain it on your website, framing it as a highly effective measure that protects their privacy and sensitive payment details.

6. Educate your staff.

Even the most robust data security precautions will be compromised if your employees are not on board. Anyone who functions as a gatekeeper in your organization needs to understand their vital role in detecting, addressing, and mitigating threats. Anyone who has access to hardware or software in your organization must be educated on how to protect the privacy, integrity and security compliance of the data you store.

Making everyone on your staff a part of your security ecosystem should involve the following components.

• Create, enforce, and regularly update clear security policies.
• Regularly hold training sessions with workers on all levels to provide information about cyber security and the latest threats.
• Regularly conduct drills and simulated hacking incidents.
• Inform staff about social engineering attacks such as phishing schemes so that people can recognize them and minimize the risk of becoming victims.
• Communicate about any security breaches that occur, and encourage staff to be upfront with you if they become a victim.

A workforce that is informed and engaged is one of your best defenses against cyber crime. Digital criminals never sleep. However, like wolves that generally tend to attack the most vulnerable, hackers focus on companies with porous security systems. Do everything you can to make your digital fortress strong, and you will be as safe as possible from these destructive attacks.