How do Companies Protect Customer Information?

Last Updated on 9 months by Touhid

The primary aim of information security is to protect customer information, student data, financial information, and employee information. In this post, we will provide helpful tips on how do companies protect customer information to keep business reputations.

How do Companies Protect Customer Information?

Information security refers to the process of preventing unauthorized access, modification, disruption, or destruction of information.

Information security protects the customer’s different types of data such as stores, creates, and receives, transactions, knowledge, communications, and infrastructure. So, companies need to protect customer information.

Our data security team has provided the following tips on how do companies protect customer information.

Limit Access to Customer Information

Everyone in an organization doesn’t need to access the customers’ personal information. If all employees can access the customer data, then there is a chance to compromise customer data. So, you must create a plan or access limit, which employees can access the customer information.

Centralized monitoring system

You can develop a Centralized monitoring system to protect customer information. The system can be able to monitor who is accessing your network, servers, database, and printers. You can also track who is trying to access your application or data in your network.

Create a Strong Password

Typically, companies store their customer information digitally on a server. Unauthorized users can’t access customer information for illegal activities. In that case, companies should use strong passwords for login in servers and databases to protect customer information.

We are using very weak passwords to remember in our memory like as date of birth, mobile no, employee ID, and 123456, which is one of the prime reasons for leakage of customer information. So, create a strong password using letters, numbers, and special characters and change them regularly (i.e., Between 30 and 180 days).

• The password length should be at least 10 characters long.
• The password must have uppercase letters (A – Z), lowercase letters (a – z), numbers (0 – 9), and special characters (@, #, $, %, ^, (,), &, *!).
• Example for a strong password: F#a48^mn@2 is a strong password and standard password.

Learn More about How to come up with a good password?

Install Antivirus software

Antivirus software is a program that helps to protect your computer data files and other important information from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other malware. It scans every file that comes through the Internet and helps to protect your customer data.

Expert Tips

• Companies can use server-based antivirus software to protect customer database servers and ensure that valuable information is secured.
• It is also suggested that companies can use one of the following professional anti-virus software:
  • Bitdefender
  • Norton
  • Kaspersky
  • Panda
  • ESET
  • Avast
  • AVG

Up To Date Operating System And Security Patch

Cyber security experts recommend that update your operating system and anti-malware with the latest security patches and drivers to secure customer information. It will ensure that your employee’s computer is up-to-date and free from viruses and other cyber threats. Here are the tips on how to update your operating system:

Expert Tips

• Open Windows Update by clicking the Start button > control panel > system and security > and clicking Windows Update.
• In the left pane, click Check for updates, and then wait while Windows looks for the latest updates for your computer.
• If any updates are found, then click Install updates.

Create a strong Privacy Policy

How do companies protect customer information? Every company should create a privacy policy to protect customer information. The policy will ensure how you are keeping customer data and which prevention method are you using for unauthorized access. In addition, customers need to know that you can protect their information.

If your companies have a privacy policy, that will help to build consumer trust to keep your business’s reputation. And if you are failing to protect your customers’ data then it can affect customer’s trust in your business brand.

Educate Your Employees

Employees should be educated and trained about cyber threats, hacking, and its protection mechanisms because they are maintaining customer information.

Every organization should have arranged awareness workshops and training programs on data security and how to protect customer data. The workshop and training program may include the following topics:

• What is data security? And its importance.
• How to handle customer data?
• How to protect customer data?
• How to take backup and restore data?
• How to create a strong password?
• How to update software and OS?
• Cyber threats and their protection mechanism.

Data Backup

A data backup is another important tip on how do companies protect customer information. It is a process, which copying or archiving data files and folders to be able to restore data in case of customer data loss. Data backup is secondary storage of data which is used for data protection.

Expert Tips

• As part of a data backup plan, you may consider the following strategy:
  • Organizing the customer data files and folders.
  • Use compression method.
  • Determine a backup schedule.
  • Make sure to back up data regularly.
  • Determine your backup location.
• It is better for the secondary storage server should be installed in a physically different location because if the primary server is down or destroyed for any reason then the secondary server will be performed.

Data Masking

Data masking is a type of data protection mechanism that hides original data with modified content (such as characters or other data). It is the process of interchanging or modifying certain elements of the data, enabling security and it will ensure the confidentiality of your customer information.

The main reason for using masking to a data field is to protect your sensitive data such as:

• Personally identifiable information.
• Protected health information.
• Payment card information.
• Intellectual property and.
• Login credentials.

Data Encryption

You can use data encryption techniques to protect customer information. Data encryption is a type of data security measures that enable encryption and decryption of a data stream during transmission and storage. It can enable the encryption of your customer data, files, and other documents.

There are different types of encryption methods used to encrypt and decrypt the data such as AES, MD5, and SHA 1.

Learn more about Data Encryption.

Conclusion

Finally, every company should secure or protect their customer information to keep their business reputation. We have provided the best tips on how do companies protect customer information. Hope the article will be helpful for a company, who wants to store and protect customer information.