How to Ensure Customer Data Protection in Testing Times

data-protection

 

Data and cyber security issues are real and staggering.

No one on this planet can turn a blind eye to it anymore.

You know the aforementioned statements make complete sense when one of the top tech tycoons, Michael Dell has this to say – “ When you ask people about their biggest worry these days, their biggest unmet need, cyber-security is at the top of the list.”

With the supremacy of cloud technology, social media, messenger apps, and emails, handling customer data has become a genuine cause of apprehension. Social media is a hackers’ favourite these days, with recent studies suggesting almost 6, 00,000 Facebook accounts being compromised every single day. Plus, 68% of funds lost due to cyber attack have been declared unrecoverable.

Moreover, the innate fear among people relating to data security is increasing as almost every week, we read about breaches revolving customer data. Considering present state of affairs, taking added measures to protect customer data has become crucial to sustain any business and reinstil faith in testing times.

Now that we have established the need to up the ante in customer data protection, let us explore some of the diverse ways businesses can adopt to ensure that.

  1. Enable Multiple Layers of Authentication

It is high time to stop kidding ourselves and start understanding the fact that a single password enabled access to customer related information will not stand its ground any longer. Hackers can easily decode it and gain access to information, thereby leading to impersonation, fraud and ultimately financial theft. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to have several layers to protect and encrypt data. Also, a contact center should make sure that customer interactions can’t be deciphered even if hackers manage to lay their hands on them.

  1. Give Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Technologies a Try

DLP technologies allow an administrator to automate and impose some policies to help govern the use and progress of customer data. This means you can impose a rule to stop customer files that contain a permanent address proof, from going outside the firm. You can also set other rules to control the flow of data and prevent data security. This way you will be able to avoid any unintentional data disclosure, or employees leaking customer data outside the organization.

  1. Incorporate Customer Data Protection for Cloud Applications

Protecting data relating to customers should increasingly be a part of cloud based applications and their contracts. The problem with most cloud based contracts is that the normal best practices to protect data are not enough in these times. We have to go a step ahead to guarantee that exclusive contracts are put in place to cover the detailed data privacy requirements. Also, cloud based technologies have seen their share of criticism and backlash due to data protection concerns. With the inclusion of new contracts to bind customer data, these criticisms can be put to rest.

  1. Ensure Continuous Training to Contact Center Agents

The simplest mechanism for hackers to breach data security and access confidential documents is to compromise or trick a contact center agent. We all know that a contact center environment faces the issue of high personnel turnover. You need to be certain that all your agents should understand and use the security guidelines for accessing and sharing sensitive customer documents. You also need to continually take care that agents should not open documents or click links from an unsecured source since it is a widely-used technique of installing malicious software that can easily place hackers inside your secure network.

  1. Don’t Rush to Delete Data

It is instinctive for humans to delete data we deem as unnecessary. However, this habit should be curbed by organization dealing with enormous amounts of customer data. This is because in case of emergencies, you’ll not be able to figure out the cause of data related issues. Therefore, keeping data for at least a year should be a norm. This will also help you to identify irregular actions and trends of hackers who are trying to gain access to your customer data.

  1. Keep Updating your Systems at Regular Intervals

Often the best way to tackle data privacy issues is to update your operating system, web browsers, and other computer software. This way you can always keep hackers guessing. Furthermore, employ application control to keep a track and restrict software that reduces security without any benefits.

What are some of the other exclusive methods that can be used to ensure greater protection of customer data? Let us know your thoughts on the subject in the comments below.

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