Conniving the importance of online security can put the sensitive information of your users at risk. You should make sure that the integrity of your customers’ financial information, passwords, and other sensitive details is maintained, and no unauthorized sources can get access to it.
Even if you have a small blog, Your audience data matters and should be protected, bloggers should not avoid this because this blogging mistake can turn you from hero to zero.
Now the pressing issue is how to secure online user data with so many cyber-crimes taking place every day.
Read through to get a complete idea on protecting your customer’s data by implementing some simple yet effective tips.
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Table of Contents
Secure Your Website with SSL Certificate
Your users are looking for a secure website that they can trust. Getting an SSL Certificate for your website can assure your customers that their personal data is safe and not vulnerable to hackers. SSL Certificates work by encrypting the data transferred between the server and the browser. Owing to encryption, the confidential information remains safe and inaccessible for the hackers.
If you do not have an SSL Certificate, your website will be labelled as “Not Secure”, that will reduce the trust in customer mind. For any business owner who wants to ensure the safety of the online users, these certificates are the most important means.
Ecommerce owner can install wildcard SSL certificate on their server to secure unlimited subdomain hosted under primary domain. You can get obtain wildcard SSL Certificate at cheapest price from Cheap SSL Shop – www.cheapsslshop.com/wildcard-ssl-certificates. Here, wildcard Certificate available at just $63 per year price.
Cheap SSL Shop offers wide range of SSL Certificate at reasonable rates. They provide SSL certificate of trusted Certificate Authority. These certificates help to enhance the search engine ranking because security is one of the parameters that Google considers for search engine optimization of any website or blog.
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Have an Anti-Malware Protection
Malware has afflicted several businesses and compromised the sensitive data of users. Even social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have not been spared by this blasphemy. You should definitely have an anti-malware protection to make sure that your user data remains secure and free from cyber-attacks. Regular virus scans are a must to get rid of spyware and viruses that may manipulate the data of your users or steal their personal information.
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Hard Drives Should be Rendered Unreadable
Before you dispose off your hard drives, make your hard drives unreadable. It is advisable that you sanitize the drive by disk shredding or getting the disk cleaned magnetically or wiping it clean through a software program. You should dismantle the used computer disks and backup tapes for better customer security.
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Use Secure Wireless Network
Whether you are a small business owner or the CEO of a multinational company, your wireless network should be protected with a strong password that is impossible to guess. Doing so helps you avoid any unsolicited access in your system or entry into your data. Hide your Wi-Fi network by setting up the wireless access point or router to make sure that the network name remains concealed. Use a password to prevent access to the router.
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Always Have a Firewall
Firewalls help you to block dangerous programs that may infect your devices. Several software programs can be used for firewall protection.
But firewalls based on the hardware system are better as they are built into the network routers, thereby warranting superior security.
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Have a Data Backup
Often, business owners procrastinate taking backup of their data as well as the user information. Failing to do so can leave you in an extremely sad state in case you lose your device. You should have a backup on an external hard drive or any other device for easy recovery if the data in the original device gets compromised due to any reason. You can backup your data on cloud storage as the information remains offline and satisfactorily recovers data even in disasters.
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Get Operating System Updated
It is exhausting to get operating system updated but it is mandatory as they comprise of necessary security patches assuring data security. Not installing these updates puts your user data at risk of security breach.
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Software Updates
You should download the most recent security updates from operating systems. Enabling automatic updates is the best way to ensure this. Keep the automatic updates turned on so that you are always aligned with the latest security updates.
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Two-Factor Authentication Works
Whenever a customer makes a request, confirm it with a two-factor authentication that sends a ‘One Time Password’ on their device as a text message or email. This helps in preventing any hacking attempt by unauthorized elements.
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Educate Your Customers About the Importance of Passphrases
Passphrases are better than passwords as they are not easy to guess by hackers. You can have the song lyrics you love, your favorite line from a book or a movie as the password. You can use the first letter of each word in that phrase as the password. Doesn’t it sound interesting? Well, it is not just interesting but safe too!
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Request Your Customers Not to Select “Remember Password”
Many users out there follow the practice of selecting “Remember Password” in the browser of their device or the mobile Apps. This is not safe as you never know when the hackers lay their hands on the device and steal your data.
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Apps Should Comply With Privacy Settings
Apps have special privacy settings for users to regulate the type of information stored therein. As far as possible, users should select less information to share.
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Activate Remote Location Feature
In case of theft, the remote location feature allows you to determine the location of your phone. In addition, you can even delete the sensitive information from where you are. Consequently, you can protect your sensitive information from going into the wrong hands.
Final Thoughts
As a website owner, protecting your user data should be your foremost priority and besides following all the best practices in your website, you should even educate them to individually protect their data.
More often than not, it is their ignorance that may lead to such occurrences. If both the user and the website take care of their data, hackers would have a really tough time executing their motives.
