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Privacy, securing data, and providing end-to-end security are unquestionably important components of doing business with clients online. The dynamically changing expectations and habits of online customers’ demands adoption of the best practices of securing user data and guaranteeing seamless user journeys. Some of the ways by which online businesses can secure their customer information are:

1. Tell the customer how the business uses their personal information - Customers may be cautious to share personal information with brands, owing to a lack of transparency between businesses and customers over how their data is handled. Transparency may go against traditional business practices. But being transparent brings genuine value to products and services while boosting brand loyalty in the current business-consumer connection. Customers can understand and subscribe to the wider picture if you are honest about how you use their data.
2. Check the IT environment for vulnerabilities and patch them - Businesses, particularly eCommerce sites, should test their sites on a regular basis to find vulnerabilities that aren't detected by their current security measures. Businesses must hire cybersecurity specialists or ethical hackers to identify code vulnerabilities. Running daily scans to ensure that malware hasn't been planted on the site is a basic check to be done. Businesses are also advised to invest in more powerful security programs as well.
3. Monitor and control the access to customers’ data - Software to assist the integration of devices into IT infrastructures provides extra security layers for login processes. It also provides tools to encrypt emails. While these tools can help prevent unwarranted attacks, they don't address the source of the problem. Human employees and their unpredictable behavior is the most concerning factor. The greatest strategy to reduce the risk to your data is to educate your employees about your company's data protection policies. No amount of technology innovation can insulate a business from human error and oversight. Employees must be educated about the ways to handle sensitive customer information. They must also undergo specific courses that train them in preventing classified corporate information from falling into the wrong hands. The staff must be made to think twice about sending sensitive information over email. Also, the IT teams must ensure that passwords are changed and updated on a regular basis.
4. Encryption is the need of the hour - Less than half of firms say they encrypt critical data, indicating that it is still a serious flaw. Payment processors such as Visa and MasterCard require retailers to encrypt card information by default during transactions. If the personal data is saved on corporate servers, there is a substantially higher danger of getting it hacked. The data has to be safeguarded with rigorous industry-standard security and the newest encryption technology.
5. Proactively prepare for a disaster and be resilient - Most businesses have a disaster recovery strategy in place to deal with human error, data center outages, and natural disasters, but cyber-attacks are sometimes overlooked. It's critical to put protections in place to ensure business continuity even after facing a data breach. Care must be taken to ensure cyber-attacks must not be able to disrupt day-to-day business operations.

It makes sense to invest the time and resources necessary to protect sensitive customer data. Businesses must build a culture of joint responsibility for securing data. Data breaches are on the rise, and their impact is expected to be seen for years to come. As a result, criminals are getting wiser about hacking their target networks. Companies are advised to prioritize customer data protection now more than ever.

Centex Technologies provides computer networking, IT security and Cybersecurity solution to businesses. For more information, contact Centex Technologies at (972) 375-9654.

Cybercriminals launched numerous cyberattacks in 2021 that were not only well-coordinated but also far more advanced than anything previously seen. Recent cybersecurity incidents affecting some of the world's largest corporations may have caught your attention. In reaction to the COVID-19 epidemic, the globe transitioned to a remote work paradigm and has since progressed to a 'hybrid' work culture. This has resulted in a flurry of new threats, technologies, and business models in the cybersecurity area. Everyone is a target of these cyberattacks, but small enterprises appear to be one of the most popular. CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers) across the globe think these five cybersecurity issues are going to become the new cyberattack norm in 2022:

A range of cyberattacks targeting the Networks and Wifi of remote workers- A firewall and VPN deployed however reduce the common cybersecurity concerns. But educating the staff, and implementing stringent security policies are also a must. Putting up cybersecurity measures, on the other hand, becomes challenging when workers operate remotely. Almost half of the senior IT professionals in companies see their staff developing undesirable cyber-security behaviors. While working from home has been good for many employees, this is turning into a nightmare for security professionals. Unsecure networks, personal devices, and human error are just a few of the top cybersecurity threats connected with remote work. Ongoing employee training, among other security measures, can help to limit the danger to a large extent.

Threat to big data and cloud infrastructure - Increasingly, businesses are turning to the cloud to accelerate their digital transformation. Despite the growing popularity of cloud computing, data security remains a top priority for many businesses. Some of the reasons for cloud environments to be a lucrative target for hackers are: - 

• RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) has not been properly administered and monitored
• Misconfigurations of cloud instances
• Failure to deploy and configure MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)
• Lack of monitoring and surveillance of the cloud environment
• Improper configuration of IAM (Identity and Access Management) policies

Vulnerabilities in IoT enabled devices, wearables, gadgets, and appliances - It's all about becoming data-driven in the digital transformation process. One of the main sources of that data is the IoT (Internet of Things). IoT devices are vulnerable mostly due to a lack of built-in security safeguards to protect them from attackers. Cyberattacks on IoT devices have more than doubled in 2021, according to Kaspersky. Cyber attackers might obtain access to sensitive data and launch attacks against other linked systems by exploiting vulnerabilities in IoT devices.

Ransomware and APTs are here to stay - The classic ransomware narrative involved malicious programs encrypting files quickly with public-key RSA encryption. Then it deleted those files if the victim did not pay the ransom. Threat actors steal data from enterprises in addition to encrypting files in double extortion ransomware attacks. These are also well known as threats that force you to pay first or else they shall breach the company networks. This means that, in addition to demanding a ransom to decrypt data, attackers might threaten to expose stolen data. However, you cannot trust a hacker even if you made a second payment. Blackmailing and extortion are inherent characteristics of APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) groups. Most of these cyber attackers belong to some or the other APT groups. 

Social engineering and phishing - Anti-phishing software is in huge demand nowadays due to the wide scale advent of the work from home model. Credential stuffing is a cyber-attack in which credentials obtained from one service's data breach are used to log in to another unrelated service. These attacks are increasing their intensity. The sophisticated bots attempt multiple logins at the same time and pretend to originate from different IP addresses. The fact that many users employ the same username and/or password combination across several sites makes credential stuffing assaults quite effective. Credential stuffing will remain a severe issue if this practice persists. The most common source of data breaches is human mistakes. Many social engineering attacks will continue to grow in 2022. The lack of end-user cybersecurity knowledge and the attitude that it is the cyber team's responsibility is a red flag that people must rectify.

In 2022, there are a number of other threats that businesses should be aware of. Being aware of the top cybersecurity threat predictions for 2022 is just not enough. It's also critical to have a cybersecurity plan that can defend businesses from these dangers.

Centex Technologies provide state-of-the-art cyber-security and IT systems for enterprises. For more information, contact Centex Technologies at Killeen (254) 213-4740, Dallas (972) 375-9654, Atlanta (404) 994-5074, and Austin (512) 956-5454