The global average cost of a data breach in 2023 was $4.45 million. If you want to protect your company and maintain the trust of your customers, you need to take steps to protect their data.
Customer data is your responsibility as a business, and if you lose it during a data breach, it can be costly. It can also destroy relationships with your customers and sink your business reputation.
Be sure to follow these strategies to protect important customer data.
Limit Data Accessibility
To keep your customer data safe, make sure that you have strict access controls in your business. Don’t let just anybody access your customer data.
Even if a person works for your business, ensure they can’t access customer data unless they have explicit permission to do so. Also, encrypt customer data and keep it password-protected. Additionally, be sure to clear it from your system when you no longer need it.
Secure Your Network
To prevent a data breach, take steps to protect your network and improve cyber resilience. Implement strong encryption and network security measures and do everything you can to prevent unauthorized access.
If someone hacks into your network, they may be able to access your data and this can be a big problem for your business. Make sure that you’re only providing network access to people who work for your business and preventing others from logging into it.
Also, be sure that your team is following security standards when using devices on public Wi-Fi networks. Consider having them use a VPN or other security features to prevent access from unauthorized users.
Train Your Staff on Security
Invest in your staff and train them thoroughly on cybersecurity and data security practices. Your employees should know the best practices for preventing cyberattacks and security breaches.
Teach employees how to manage passwords, prevent access to their devices, and avoid phishing attempts and scams. They should also know what to do if a problem does occur. Create a response plan and ensure that your team is ready to follow it if necessary.
Improve Passwords
To protect customer data, you need to have strong password policies in place. Ensure that all staff members are using strong passwords and that they’re updating them on a regular schedule.
Ensure that your staff isn’t using the same passwords over and over again but that they’re using different passwords for each account they use. It’s also a good idea to enable multi-factor authentication to provide even better data security.
Update Your Systems
Also important is to make sure that you’re updating all of your systems and software regularly. Updates help to eliminate vulnerabilities and can help make your systems as secure as possible.
Set a schedule for performing updates and stick to it. Doing so will help to prevent business data loss.
Taking Steps to Protect Customer Data
If you want to protect customer data, be sure to take business security as seriously as possible. Limit data access, secure your network, and keep your staff well-trained to prevent the loss of customer information.
Need more cybersecurity tips and tricks? Find more useful business guides by reading through our blog now.
