As the business world increasingly moves online and begins using online payment services and cloud data management software, the importance of data security increases as well. The average consumer is now aware of the several negative consequences of a data breach, and unscrupulous hackers steal their personal information.
Digital security concerns are a major factor in how consumers choose the businesses they want to receive services. As your company grows, it is better to entrust your security needs to experts and need-based software that have been specifically developed to provide for these exact security scenarios.
Companies that provide server database administration services have the experience and in-depth knowledge to work with your companies’ IT department to add more security layers to the protection of important business data. As long as you are cognizant of the issues that could crop up, you will be able to understand your business’s weaknesses and how best to protect them.
What is Personally Identifiable Information?
Personally identifiable information is your clients’ private information, which can be used to steal their identity. This includes everything from name, current address, email address, phone numbers, identification documents, date of birth, and many more.
Understandably, many consumers would lose faith in your company and switch to a competitor if their data was stolen. People are rightfully concerned about data and identity theft that even the suggestion that your company cannot protect their information would be enough to lose their trust.
Can It Cause Substantial Damage?
The theft of personally identifiable information has led to people suffering from having their identity stolen, false fraud charges brought against them, and even liable for loans taken out with their information without their knowledge.
A person’s online accounts from email to bank accounts can be compromised because the information stolen can be used to break into these accounts and steal more information or money. At the lower end of the spectrum, people whose information is stolen become a target of malicious and unscrupulous advertisers who misuse the information to target them.
This has made the whole of online advertising suspect in people’s eyes as they cannot be sure which companies have integrity and have bought stolen information.
What Can Be Done?
Companies are now using end-to-end encryption so that only the people involved in the communication can see and access the messages. This form of encryption is effective enough that consumers’ basic requirement on platforms that require them to provide private financial information such as credit card numbers and PayPal details.
A large part of making these online dealings safer is also about making sure to provide customers with safe online purchasing platforms. Using a website address that uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the least you can do to ensure that the transactions are secure for the users. People are also more educated on these matters and unlikely to use payment pathways that do not, at the very least, guarantee them that HTTPS is enabled.
Secure and easy-to-navigate payment platforms and websites are a convenience that guarantees loyal customer bases that will stick with your business. With so many choices out there and the ease with which people can now start businesses online, the competition is fierce.
By establishing your company as a secure source of business that cares about protecting customers’ information and privacy, you guarantee your business’s future and stability. Your company’s future and success are in the hands of its consumers. Therefore giving them the best and more secure transactions possible is an investment in that future and success.