Shockingly Easy Ways to Secure Customer Payment Data

There is always a risk when doing business online or off, and no company is invulnerable to fraud. But you don’t have to make it easy for criminals. From simple web security to employee education, there are many easy ways to secure customer payment data at your business.

Reliable Payment Processors

All modern businesses need payment processors. These are the middlemen between your bank and the customers, and make sure the transactions go through as they should. However, they aren’t all reliable, and some don’t have great security. But the best ones, such as North American Bancard, offer extra security for both card (using cards) present and card not present (phone, subscriptions, etc.) transactions with a security-rich virtual terminal for credit cards.

Website Security Certificates

As an online business, you must make sure your website is safe for your customers to use. And the most basic way to do this is to ensure any websites have at least HTTPS and SSL security certificates. These encrypt any communication between a user and a site, such as names, addresses, and payment details. If a URL doesn’t begin with “https,” it isn’t secure. And a little padlock icon in the address bar also denotes that a site has up-to-date SSL security installed.

Secure Customer Payment Data by Monitoring Activity

Whenever there is money involved, a business is a target. And it doesn’t matter how large or small you are. In fact, according to one analysis, almost half of the cyber-attacks are made on small businesses with less than 1,000 employees. Fortunately, it is easy to install fraud monitoring software that can highlight when fraud may be in action. You can also configure these apps to your liking, so they can accept or reject a transaction based on the risk of fraud.

Advanced Security Features

There are many advanced security features for online businesses these days, but they are very simple to set up. Some of the most effective you may have already used include 3D security, multi-factor authentication, and requesting card verification numbers. Your payment processors will typically handle these, but you can go ahead and use software for payment security. Some of the best include Thales and digital wallets such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Training Employees Against Fraud

The best security in the world cannot be effective if your employees aren’t trained. Even today, social engineering (working on employees to gain access) accounts for 98% of intrusion, the most common of which is phishing. Just educating employees about the damage fraud can cause will help them be more aware of it. Other methods include red flag training, an established verification process, and company-specific anti-fraud checks and balances.

Summary

It helps to secure customer payment data to prevent fraud. A good payment processor can handle most of it, such as 3D secure and MFA. Yet you can also play a role in making sure website security, such as SSL, is in use, as well as training employees to spot potential crime.