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Running a business isn’t just about coming up with an innovative solution and selling the product to your target market. To stay in business, there are moral and legal obligations you can’t afford to overlook and one of them is assuring customers that their private information is safe. As digital transactions become a part of daily life, it has become easier for cybercriminals to steal sensitive data from unsuspecting users. 

Failing in this aspect of your business operations does not only lead to losses. Your business is poised to suffer reputational damage if it’s found you’ve fallen short in protecting customer data from prying eyes. With that being said, here are the top five tips you should apply to elevate your business’s customer protection processes. 

1. Assess your business’s vulnerabilities

Crucial to improving your capacity to protect customer data is knowing whether your business’s current data and privacy security infrastructure is up-to-date. Considering how fast technology is evolving with the aid of machine learning and generative AI, you need to know if your business has what it takes to defend itself against more sophisticated types of attacks and prevent unwanted data leaks. In this sense, conducting an internal audit is critical to helping you determine the stability of your security posture. 

With this, check if your business is missing essential security features and review the way you onboard new clients. When it comes to assessing your business’s compliance with national and international data security laws, reach out to a third-party service provider to determine what framework you need to check if your business falls short of satisfying regulatory requirements.

2. Know what types of data you require from customers

Whether you’re operating a brick-and-mortar business or running a purely online store, you need to think about the kind of client information to be collected for every transaction. To reduce their exposure to cybersecurity threats, only require the most important information such as names and email addresses. 

The more data you put into your database, the greater your losses get in the event of a breach. What’s more, never ask for credit card numbers and social security numbers directly from clients. Set up secure platforms for capturing such data following regulations such as the PCI DSS. 

3. Ensure strict access controls

Many cases of data breaches are the result of human error or intentional theft from the inside. Login credentials such as passwords and usernames can easily be obtained by unauthorized users who can access internal databases and steal customer information. Preventing this requires setting up a strict policy limiting who gets to view and obtain customer data.

With this in mind, review your current data security policies and assign a few members of your IT team who can perform such tasks as password and account creation, system monitoring, and identity verification. In any case, it helps if you can implement a zero-trust policy,  especially if your business operates in the B2B sector where single transactions may amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

4. Verify new users and set up anti-fraud processes

You wouldn’t want your business to be a conduit for fraudulent activities. Criminals can steal sensitive information from other people and use it to make unauthorized purchases and even more severe actions that may violate international law. 

For this reason, you need to set up a system to screen new clients and provide them with the means to prevent unwanted access and purchases. Using data encryption and multi-factor authentication using biometrics and one-time passwords is a standard for improving consumer protection and preventing fraud.

As your business grows, expect your client base to grow, too. Along with that, your data security needs become more pronounced as more transactions come. By using these tips, you can do your customers a big favor by securing their most sensitive data.