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Data breaches can be very damaging and frequent. There are massive leaks that regularly come as headlines and it’s always seen that cyberpunks target businesses of all sizes and in all fields.
Robert Mueller (Former FBI Director) once said,
“There are only two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those that will be.”
This statement is an epiphany…….because if you run any kind of online business, there are high chances you are collecting user data, which is probably valuable to both the company and the users. The most common thing will be an email address and a password, but such primary data can also significantly impact if it gets leaked or stolen.
Do you remember the year 2015, It was deadly for the cybersecurity world regarding security and breaches. Cyberattack risks like phishing, viruses, and walking are genuine challenges to internet users. They interfere with businesses and ways of doing business, like financial transactions and how people communicate with customers in business.
Therefore, regardless of the business size, the business must be loaded with tools and expertise to secure the data and the user’s information. One best way to prevent cyber attacks is you don’t get much access to users’ information so no stealing, compromise, or disruption of user data.
One other way is to avoid data pollution. It is about deleting unnecessary data that can turn toxic. To do this, you can decide on a timeline to keep this data, or you can decide on the shelf life of the data.
There are many such tried and tested practices that have superb outcomes regarding the protection of users’ information.
Do you want to know about some of these best practices to protect the eCommerce data of users?
Read this blog to know everything about how you can protect the eCommerce data of the users.
But first, are you fully aware of the reasons to secure your users’ data?
Reasons Why You Need to Protect User’s Data
1. You Don’t Want to See a Reduction in Your Customer Churn Rate
Customer churn rate means the number of users who stopped being your customer after a specific time. If you run a business, you’ll never want to lose your customers. To nurture customers, one should be aware of the foundation needed to make it happen.
Thus, if your customer is confident with your service and they feel a sense of protection, then they will never vanish. And you have to make sure it happens. An extra layer of protection will put you one step ahead in this game.
2. Will Protect You From Any Kind of Legal Concomitants
Cyberpunks can cause long-term and serious damage to your company. Because they can do illegal transactions or use customers’ distinct information for their benefit.
If something like this happens, the user’s trust in the company will decrease, and the whole business will suffer from its consequences. This is why it is important to take all the necessary precautions to safeguard the data and avoid adverse conditions.
3. You Will Experience an Overall Business Growth
Companies’ images will get into trouble if sensitive data is assaulted in any way. These kinds of unfavorable events will affect the business’s prosperity and growth, and they will take away all your potential customers and investors as they will think of your company as unworthy and unsafe for investment.
4. You Will Be Considered a Professional and Reliable Business Partner
The secret to a successful business is building trust and equity with the customers. If enterprises embrace an appropriate security system, they will retain their potential customers for a longer period.
If your customers feel safe with you, there is a good chance they will become frequent buyers and refer others to you. This is what the companies need, and high-level security can offer it.
Top Practices To Protect Your User’s eCommerce Data
1. Educate the Customers
It is the simplest thing that a business can do and is very pivotal for the safe future of your business. Businesses should encourage their users to take personal responsibility for safeguarding their information.
The users should be informed about the kind of information they should give and why that information is required. You should educate them on how to recognize suspicious behavior on the website and how to contact them in the event of a scam.
2. Only Store the Necessary Data
As a business owner, you should be cautious about gathering information. Don’t make your ability to gather information a liability in case you lose it.
The landing pages available on the web are generally CTA-optimized. Use the CTA for eCommerce wisely, so that you can achieve more lead conversions. You can ask for users’ email addresses, contact numbers, credit card information, and other sorts of data.
But before you collect and keep this sensitive information, ask yourself if it is necessary to stash it. However, for an online store, it’s not important to stash every single piece of data related to the customer.
If it is sensitive data and losing it will steer the business into severe losses, then it would be better to avoid it.
3. Never Ever Store the Credit Card Details of a Customer
Yeah, this point is pretty similar to the above point but is present here with some minuscule details. Important details like customer names and credit card numbers assist in making a quick checkout.
However, it is useless and quite risky to keep these details on web servers. Keeping such sensitive data on the web is like inviting cyber-attackers. It is also considered a violation of the PCI (Payment Card Industry) standards.
This type of information shouldn’t be lost, or the company’s reputation will suffer, as it can get sued and lose money to fines. So as a rule of thumb, never hoard sensitive users’ information like credit card numbers on the web.
If it is necessary, store them offline so that they cannot be infiltrated by hackers.
Other than that, businesses can choose online payment facilitators like PayPal, Skrill, Stripe, et al., to handle all credit-card-related payments.
4. ENCRYPT (Read in Bold)
As a preventive measure, always make sure to encrypt sensitive information like passwords, to handle the situation if information gets leaked.
Cybersecurity experts advise business owners to keep customer information on their computers; they should encrypt those hard disks through apps like TrueCrypt. So even if your device is lost or stolen, the user’s information will not be tweaked.
5. Remember: HTTP + SSL= HTTPS
An SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate is a security program that is utilized for encrypting data that is shared between online servers. It is one of the most prominent solutions to protect against the leaking of customer information over the internet.
It will keep the cyber attackers from blocking data transfer between the browser and the server.
Remember: HTTP is for data transmission, SSL is for encryption, and HTTPS is for the secure transmission of information. Besides being an extra security guard, SSL also boosts the reliability of the website, especially for eCommerce stores.
The bottom line is that the majority of users know that “HTTP” is linked with high standards of security, so they feel comfortable visiting websites that are HTTPS-enabled.
6. Stay Updated With Security Patches
Websites, apps, software, and programs that aren’t updated with the latest versions are more prone to hacking. Hackers can easily infiltrate these websites and exploit the available vulnerabilities in their older versions.
For example, retailers are advised to keep their shopping carts up-to-date by implementing the latest security measures. Cyber-attackers possess resentful software and techniques that are capable of crawling inside the program and tracing the flaws in the system that are not protected properly.
To prevent your website from being attacked by cyberpunks, the only proper way is to keep the software up to date with the latest versions that come with upgraded security measures.
7. Watch Out For Fake Applications and Websites
Even cyber-attackers are becoming more inventive; they can now write programs that resemble branded software.
This is one prime security concern as end-users will assume these websites to be authentic and will entrust them and will give personal information such as credit/debit card numbers, mobile banking details, etc.
The best way to avoid getting stuck in these pitfalls is to validate multi-factor authentication.
Summing Up!
We hope, with this blog, you are now aware of why it is important to protect the eCommerce data of your users if you own an eCommerce store.
We have also mentioned seven best practices that guarantee the complete protection of the user’s data. So, make sure to apply all these practices in real life and be alert if you detect any skeptical activity on the website.
Safeguarding users’ data is a challenging task, but this tech industry is combating it like a pro, so you should do it too—to stay ahead of your competition and at the same time to ensure customer satisfaction.
Extern Labs’ tech team is an expert in creating online stores, whether small or large, that attract users and increase sales. Along with this, we also have a marketing team that makes sure your fully functional online marketing store reaches the eyes of the right audience and targeted customers.
How about you read some of our testimonials? Visit our website to read the case studies. It will give you a little idea of how we work.
Whether it’s about development, marketing, or maintenance, we do it all and excel at it.
We make sure your online store is up and running and performing well.
For any further queries, just ping us!
