As technology changes, it’s essential to keep your customers’ data protected. Staying on top of the many updates will prevent a data breach, which can cost your business time, money, and trust. Work with your IT support team to ensure the following guidelines are being met to keep your company and customers secure. 

How to Protect Your Customers’ Data

1. Know What Data Exists & Who Has Access

In order to protect the data you have access to, you need a comprehensive list of all the information your business stores. Create a record of all the electronic and hard data your company has collected, including names, physical and email addresses, phone numbers, and billing information.

Then, identify who has access to this data. Ideally, only a few trusted individuals should have the keys, passwords, and codes to certain information. Having a clear list allows security changes to be made quickly if someone leaves the company or loses access. 

2. Create a Backup

If any of your technology is lost or damaged, you could lose essential information that keeps your business running smoothly. Having a backup available, such as in the cloud, helps you restore this data quickly and minimize any downtime the accidental disaster might have caused. 

3. Set Strong Passwords & Use Two-Factor Authentication

Every piece of technology you use to house data is only as secure as the password protecting it. If your passwords are weak, it can put the rest of the business in jeopardy. To protect sensitive information, use a different password for every account. Each should be eight characters or longer and contain a variety of numbers, upper and lowercase letters, and symbols. 

For extra security, it has become best practice to require two-factor authentication to access customer data. Anyone accessing it will have to enter an email address or username, as well as a unique identifier, like a code that’s texted to their phone.

Minimize your company’s risk of data breaches by turning to the trusted IT providers at Intellicom. For over 25 years, they’ve provided the finest technology solutions to small businesses and large corporations in Kearney and the Greater Nebraska area. Their knowledgeable team will help you create a plan for storing and accessing data securely and setting up and using protective software and hardware. Call (308) 237-0684 to get started, or visit their website to learn more about their services.