As the owner of a small business, it is easy to fall into a dangerous trap. You might tell yourself, “Cyber criminals won’t care about my company because it is not large.” On the contrary, it is vital that you take proactive steps to bolster your data safety infrastructure and prove your payment processing is secure so that you can be in compliance with rules, regulations, and protocols.

Draw a cyber security road map.

Just as you created a business plan to chart your company’s goals, you need to do the same thing when it comes to data security. Start by taking a deep dive into all of your processes, procedures, and structures to determine your vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Armed with this information, you can then devise a targeted plan to bolster your data protection fortress.

Create an environment of security awareness.

End users are often the entry point that criminals exploit to infiltrate a company’s systems. For that reason, it is crucial that you focus resources on providing thorough security training to every member of your staff. Doing so will help you to equip your team with everything they need to identify risks that can come from phishing attempts, social engineering campaigns and ransomware attacks. Once everyone is aware, your employees can become your early warning system to alert you of anything suspicious.

Insist on strong passwords.

Everyone hates to change their passwords, and the temptation is strong to use strings of numbers and characters that are easy to guess and remember. However, allowing these lax practices in your business opens your sensitive data to attack. Require that passwords adhere to the following rules.

• Employees should have a unique password for every account.
• The password should consist of a complex mix of letters, numbers, and special characters.
• You should require that passwords are changed regularly, at least every six months.
• Add multi-factor authentication to further increase security and deter scammers.

Investing in password software assists everyone in safely storing and retrieving passwords, reducing the need for employees to call your help desk or IT specialist for a reset.

Update software regularly.

Come up with a regular maintenance schedule to install patches and update your software. If you have outdated programs that you have kept because they are familiar, keep in mind that they are no longer supported and are particularly vulnerable to hackers. Make it a point to remove these destructive dinosaurs from your company’s resources as soon as possible.

Secure your network and wifi connections.

An unsecured network is nothing less than a “come on in” sign to hackers. Protect your wifi connection with firewalls and only send data via a virtual private network (VPN).

Limit user access to sensitive data.

Many of the compliance rules that you need to follow focus on who can get their hands on your sensitive data. The best idea when it comes to valuable information is to limit access to only those who absolutely must have it. Furthermore, regularly audit which users have permissions to view sensitive information so that you can revoke permissions when they are no longer necessary.

Set up a regular backup schedule.

Anyone who has lost a valuable document that they had devoted hours to crafting knows how important it is to regularly back up your work. The same holds true for your company’s information and systems. The fact is that natural disasters and ransomware attacks can happen at any time, and the best way to minimize their effects is to have recent copies of everything stored off-site in a secure, cloud-based location. Then test your backup protocols regularly to ensure that you can retrieve crucial data after an emergency.

Invest in security technologies and software.

Earning and maintaining your customers’ trust can only happen if they know you are doing everything possible to protect their sensitive payment data and personal details. The good news is that there are steps you can take to safeguard this critical information.

• Help to prevent identity theft with address verification software.
• Mask private details with payment tokenization, a technology that replaces the customer’s details with sets of single-use alphanumeric characters that are useless to hackers.
• Implement 3-D Secure payments, an extra layer of data safety that requires customers to complete an additional verification step with the card issuer before the payment is allowed to go through. Providing an explanation on your website of 3-D Secure’s role in protecting the customer is helpful in mitigating any frustration they may feel when asked to take these additional actions.

As you work to comply with regulations and security expectations, another strategy is to demonstrate how your company keeps the lines of communication open with your customers. Reacting quickly when you see security red flags and promptly addressing customers’ concerns and questions helps to create a unified front that protects you, your valuable resources and your clients from data breaches.

Create an incident response plan.

Despite your best efforts, your defenses might be usurped at some point. You can’t afford to be unprepared in the unlikely but possible event that this occurs. To that end, develop, regularly update, and test a plan that outlines what actions will be taken and specifically who will be accountable for each. In addition, know ahead of time who you will need to notify when the breach occurs as well as how you expect to resume your regular operations.

Data security regulations exist to protect merchants and customers and to deter the cyber crimes that rob business owners like you of millions of dollars each year. Although you can never guarantee to an absolute degree that the measures you implement will provide ironclad protection from data breach, putting these strategies in place will go a long way toward shielding you, your customers, and their data from cyberattack. Don’t wait another day to safeguard your company, no matter how tiny you may be. Doing so will be one of the best investments you ever make.