Cyber criminals have a built-in advantage when it comes to compromising data. They make it their full time job to think about how to invent and execute a clever attack and they gravitate to pathways that offer the least resistance for the greatest payoff. Many work for organized crime syndicates. Even a disgruntled employee with high-level access to internal financial systems and passwords could compromise the security of an entire organization.
Yet most companies don’t have full-time security defense teams with the same intensity and focus on deterring hackers. So the odds of a successful breach are in the hacker’s favor. You can hire a company, including MSI Detective Services, to evaluate your systems and recommend countermeasures, including software, to protect your business against this type of fraud.
Study after study shows that failure to protect sensitive payment data from a breach leads to massive financial costs, customer defections, lawsuits and loss of reputation. But by being equipped with the latest tools and techniques, organizations both large and small can effectively prevent and deter cyber fraud. It is critical that companies arm themselves with tools and techniques that make cutting-edge fraud protection simple to use and effortless to manage.
As an individual, I protect my personal information on my computers with an internet security software and firewall system. Nothing is 100% full-proof, but it’s better than nothing. There are some pretty inexpensive, sophisticated software systems out there that don’t require you to have an IT degree to understand and manage them. In fact, they basically manage themselves and alert you when there is a threat.
Here are 10 tried-and-true best practices for protecting customer credit card account information and minimizing exposure to online payment scams:
1. The Best Defense is a Multilayered Offense – a deep, multilayered strategy that assumes perpetrators will eventually gain some form of access to your confidential data and, if one safeguard fails, other countermeasures can detect and respond to an attack by locking down payment data so it’s worthless to hackers in case of a breach.
A good payment security system shouldn’t merely detect intrusions. It should also have multiple deterrence layers that effectively complicate a breach attempt along with virtual padlocks on information access so there’s less to steal if a thief does break in.
In your multilayered system, assign unique IDs to each person with computer access. Combine user IDs, passwords and access tokens with tight, permission-based business rules around who needs to see or authorize confidential information such as credit card types and accounts, then provide exceptions for specific people and circumstances.
2. Form an Internal SWAT Team. To prevent a toxic data spill, assemble an internal “hazmat” team that thinks and works strategically to prevent and deter attacks rather than just detect them.
3. Use Your Head. An alert mind is often the best defense against fraud. Train administrators and other users of your payment system to keep an eye out for “things that don’t belong” and to sound an alert in case of anomalies.
Limit employee access to confidential cardholder data, since there’s usually very little need for most company personnel to see or handle that data. Warn employees against clicking on pop-up windows or suspicious links in emails – even from people or businesses that appear legitimate — which can be tricks to install spyware and steal confidential information.
4. Lock Down System Gateways and Endpoints. Protecting against malicious viruses, malware and spyware infections is often the first line of defense against a security breach. Your network architecture and PCs should be scanned frequently for vulnerabilities, every transaction point where payment information is exchanged should be scrutinized, and all document payment data flows and touch points secured. Install antivirus and antispyware software from trusted sources and keep them updated with the latest patches. Automatically scan any flash drives or external hardware that connect to your network for viruses or malware. Never turn off your firewall, and have business policies in place for regular firewall maintenance. Use strong passwords and change them routinely.
5. Stay Informed. When deciding on technologies for payment processing, be fluent in privacy protection as well as the 12 credit card protection and compliance requirements under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). By staying up-to-date, you’ll be able to intelligently discuss the issues and decide on the countermeasures needed for your system as part of the sourcing team involved in payment technology acquisition.
To read the remaining 5 steps, go to: secprodonline
