In October 2020, the world witnessed the harsh shock of reality when 18.4 million records were leaked through 117 successful cyber-attacks.
The major publicity and scare-mongering for this statistic has led to customers opening their eyes to the truth… they have to be careful where they type in their details online.
Your Responsibility to Protect Customer Data
In order to keep selling digitally, businesses need to adapt and make use of cybersecurity technology to protect their customers. These efforts provide credibility and build trust; making it clear that you care deeply about your stakeholders.
By protecting them, you also protect yourself in the long run.
See, data protection is essential for every size of business, no matter where you operate from. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in the UK on 25th May 2018, holding business owners legally responsible for taking precautionary actions to secure their data.
How to Look After Your Customer Data
To give you guidance, we’ve put together three easy steps that all business owners should follow in order to protect their customer data.
Step 1: Put Encryption Software into Place
A lot of business owners are put off from using encrypted data, due to not really understanding what it entails. We’re here to tell you.
Encryption turns information into secret code, meaning it’s harder for hackers to read. It’s cheap to implement and increases the integrity of your company considerably.
To get started, invest encryption software that automatically processes the data received through various channels (such as your website) and locks it behind walls of protection. Some effective examples of accessible encryption software include Folder Lock, AxCrypt, and CryptoExpert.
Step 2: Use Good Cybersecurity Practices
Every day, there are 300 million hacking attempts, which puts millions of computer users at risk. Something as simple as using good cybersecurity practices can make malicious malware attacks harder to implement:
- Data protection training courses ✅
- Data usage policies ✅
- Access control for sensitive data ✅
- Encryption ✅
- Using antivirus ✅
- Educating your employees about cybersecurity ✅
These all play a “crucial part of protecting our digital security, and, ultimately, defending ourselves against hackers.”
Step 3: Using a Professional IT Provider
Keytech, who have years of experience in the IT industry, have seen the consequences of data loss. As such, we recognise the importance of stopping it from happening to you.
We own encrypted servers designed to store data offsite in secure locations and protect all our clients in this way and we also take the hassle out of data protection by:
- Offering antivirus to all our IT support purchasers.
- Providing remote access monitoring.
- Helping you implement cybersecurity measures to further protect your workplace from harm.
To see how Keytech can help your business, get in touch or call 0113 5315400 to book a Discovery Call. Let’s unlock your company’s potential, together.
