Current events can teach us a great deal about the need for security and issues related to security breaches. It doesn’t matter if yours is a brick and mortar shop, an ecommerce business, a combination of both, or a nonprofit organization, breaches in security can lead to issues like credit card fraud, shoplifting concerns, and sensitive data distribution. These issues, in turn, cause an accumulation of company or personal debt, as well as other disastrous results for you and your consumers.
What are some things that current events can teach businesses about security? Here we have gathered some important information that businesses can learn from recent events.
No business, no matter how large or small, is immune to the possibility of a card data breach.
In September 2018, Newegg announced that a malicious code had been active within their servers for over a month, allowing hackers access to sensitive credit card information. The code siphoned off data from unsuspecting customers to a server controlled by hackers with a similar domain name designed to avoid protection. Newegg is one of the largest retailers in the US, operating as a computer hardware and software company that sells games, electronics, accessories, DVDs, appliances, and peripherals. The code worked on both desktop and mobile customers, meaning that the more than 45 million monthly unique visitors to the site were put at risk.
While we know that large organization like Target and Panera, who were also victims of credit card data breach, can suffer from the actions of hackers attacking their systems, it’s important to understand that being small doesn’t make you immune. In fact, smaller merchants are often the more likely targets because they may be unable to spend the money for sophisticated encryption software or security devices, and may choose to use solutions that don’t do enough to reduce their PCI scope. Without the means to utilize IT professionals on site, sometimes the solutions they choose are also used incorrectly or inadequately.
Businesses that don’t spend money on security may end up spending it in other ways.
In the case of data breaches, Target’s financial statement revealed that the 2013 breach cost $252 million in total. Likewise, Yahoo ended up paying more than $50 million in damages for their security breaches from 2013 and 2014. Costs are incurred from settling lawsuits filed by banks, card companies, and consumers, as well as dealing with the replacement of consumer credit cards. Businesses who suffer such breaches also have to restore their victims completely, meaning that a small business may find itself in bankruptcy dealing with the fallout from just one situation. Fees and fines, in addition to paying for litigation counsel and forensic auditing, means that a business will spend a great deal in both time and money to recover from a security breach.
Businesses end up suffering from broken trust and reputation.
Perhaps more than money, businesses who are victimized can suffer long-term from a damaged reputation and broken trust with consumers. In business, your brand means everything and a positive reputation that was built over years can be dismantled in a minute. Since negative press and inauthentic followers can create situations from which your business may not recover, it’s important to protect yourself and your business as much as possible and use reputable sources like Social Gone Viral to build your brand.
Businesses can do more to protect themselves.
Problems that are largely caused by human error in data security breaches may be corrected by artificial intelligence protocols, leading to an improved system that can help prevent them in the future. Codes, which may be open to vulnerabilities during development and production, can be double-checked by AI. Artificial Intelligence, too, in the form of facial recognition software can help prevent retail crime in both brick and mortar business and ecommerce. Security professionals can instantly identify both casual and organized retail criminals when they enter an, leading to improved security protocols and decreased loss over time. Images of consumers entering your business can be captured and compared to large databases of known criminals so that loss prevention professionals can be alerted when a shopper who presents a threat comes to the store.
Facial recognition can also validate the identities of online consumers and facilitate secure transactions for ecommerce businesses. ATM/debit cards are completely in mainstream business transactions, but face recognition software can be utilized to ensure that individuals using cards are who they say they are. It is likely that credit card companies will replace the credit and debit card with a selfie or a fingerprint sensor, increasing the level of prevention against fraud and identity theft and keeping card data secure by not requiring it to be put on the web.
What are some things you think businesses should understand about security? Feel free to share here.
