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Digital Practices for Enhanced Customer Security 2023

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Enhanced customer security has never been easier as consumer-facing apps and tools become more powerful yet easier to use. This helps eliminate liability on your end and ensures customers can feel safe. From governance to VPNs, here are a few secure suggestions.

Make the Most of Encryption

Encryption is one of those things that some people have no idea what it is. And for good reason. Encryption is a complex subject, and it takes an expert to really understand it. But not to use it. You don’t need to know how encryption works to use it at your business. Files and drives can be encrypted to prevent customer data leaks. And apps like Zoho Sign offer encryption for safe and secure e-signing. Modern motherboards even come with built-in hardware encryption.

Improve IT Governance

Further to motherboards and encryption, your IT department or chosen managed IT service plays a key role in ensuring security on your devices. From smartphones out in the field to office desktop PCs, all these must be secure. Unauthorized access to these means your customer data can be accessed and sold. You should have regular meetings with IT to identify security holes, assess devices for security, and ensure that employees are not using devices personally.

Enhanced Customer Security via the Cloud

Almost all cloud services are secure by default and come with excellent cybersecurity infrastructure and features. When you move to a cloud-based system, you get useful advantages at no extra cost of money or time. These include software updates but also:

  • Centralized security systems with built-in protocols for detecting illegal activity.
  • Real-time monitoring of all your data and systems connected to the cloud.
  • Minimal chances of data loss and easier disaster recovery.

These are excellent features to have when you have a lot of personal customer data that needs to be kept safe, such as running a private healthcare clinic, financial accountants, or a law firm.

Make VPNs Compulsory

Virtual Private Networks are useful apps that don’t cost much, considering what they actually do. VPNs prevent tracking over secure networks and make your devices almost unhackable. While they aren’t as anonymous as people think, they do offer much more security than going without them. Because of this, VPNs should be installed and used on all your internet-connected devices. Vendors like NordVPN offer generous packages for using it across multiple devices.

Keep Employees Informed

You may or may not be surprised that almost 90% of data breaches are caused by human error, including the latest breach of classified data about police officers in Northern Ireland. Because your employees are the ones who interact with sensitive customer data on a daily basis, they should be well-informed and trained. New employees need an IT and cybersecurity awareness onboarding session. And all employees should be trained once per year about cyber issues.

Summary

Encryption is an excellent defense for enhanced customer security at your business. Switching to cloud-based systems also comes with inherent built-in security that is hard to implement at the office. And you must also keep your employees up to date regarding ongoing cyber threats.