Marketers Need to Understand Reputational Risk with Data Security
Seventy-one percent of security breaches are financially motivated.
Security breaches can cause losses to your business that disrupt your profit margins and jeopardize your business’s reputation. Marketers need to prioritize data security for many reasons.
Want to find out what could happen if you don’t prioritize data security? This blog post will cover some top ways to improve data security for your marketing business.
Why You Need to Avoid a Data Breach
Here are some main reasons you should increase data security and avoid a security breach.
Significant Fines and Legal Repercussions
When you enter a contract, you must provide data security and protect the third party’s assets. If you become a victim of a data breach, this will cause a breach of contract. When you breach the agreement, this will have legal and financial repercussions. You will receive regulatory fines for non-compliance with GDPR and the Data Protection Act.
Working From Home Increases Vulnerability
Since the pandemic’s start, businesses have shifted towards remote and hybrid work models that raise concerns regarding data vulnerability. To facilitate remote working, companies must implement cloud-based software, which a third party could access in a cyber attack. Businesses must invest in additional cybersecurity measures or face some serious challenges.
Rising Phishing and Malware Scams
Since March 2020, over 80% of businesses have noticed an incline in phishing scams. If companies fail to educate their employees on how to spot phishing scams, they will likely fall victim to a data breach. Since most data breaches are caused by human error, the rise of phishing scams can increase your marketing business’ vulnerability to a data breach.
Losing The Trust of Your Stakeholders
If your marketing company falls victim to a data breach, this could put the trust of your stakeholders in jeopardy. Data breaches cause financial losses due to the hefty fines and legal repercussions, making your stakeholders less trusting of your ability to keep company data secure.
Forensic Investigations
When a data breach occurs, you will need a forensic investigation to find the source of the data breach. These forensic investigations can provide invaluable insight into your business’s need to strengthen data security. However, forensic investigations can also be costly in the short term, particularly for small businesses.
Reputation Implications
You could expose client data if a security breach affects your marketing business.
This risk could cause your clients to look elsewhere for their marketing needs. It could also affect your ability to procure new clients, as your reputation will be tarnished when you fall victim to a data breach. Losing clients and struggling to procure new ones could leave your business in a weak position.
How To Prevent a Data Breach
Now you know why marketers need to take every measure to prevent a data breach, let’s discuss some of the best strategies to avoid data breaches.
Implement Zero Trust Cyber & Physical Security
Zero-trust is a cybersecurity policy that does not assume you can trust every user on the network. They only offer users permission to access necessary resources. This protects the company from internal security breaches where a remote employee’s device is compromised, ensuring the third party can access a limited amount of data. It also provides employees cannot access sensitive data should they attempt to poach information.
Zero trust does not just apply to cybersecurity. You need to secure your company data from both a physical and digital standpoint. Utilizing the proper security and access control for your building helps ensure that your on-site data is genuinely secured. Visitors, interviewees, and contractors should not gain access to server rooms and areas housing sensitive information simply on the merit that they can enter your building. It would help if you used innovative technology door locks to secure these spaces, only granting users access to them based on necessity.
Train Employees On Best Security Practices
Since most security breaches are caused by human error, you must ensure all your marketers and employees receive training on the best cybersecurity practices. By providing your employees with cybersecurity training during the onboarding process, you can significantly reduce your risk of falling victim to phishing scams, malware attacks, and breaches caused by human error. Your cybersecurity training should include the following areas:
- Spotting phishing scams – you can train your employees on the importance of not giving passwords and personal information to an untrusted source. You can also train your employees to verify whether you can trust a source.
- Setting strong passwords – you should teach your employees the importance of developing and not reusing old passwords to ensure your authentication processes are air-tight.
- Keeping software up to date – your employees need to keep all software on their devices up to date. If they work using older software versions, they could be vulnerable to risks resolved in newer versions.
You can invest in password management software to help enforce strict password standards. Password management software acts as a digital vault and will notify you if one of your passwords becomes compromised. Password management software ensures your employees comply with strict password standards.
Implement MFA And Identity Verification
Multi-factor authentication requires two or more credentials for a user to access your building or the network. These credentials could be different passwords, hard drives, or biometrics like fingerprints and facial recognition. Using MFA verifies that the user is who they claim to be and are authorized to access the network.
One of the critical vulnerabilities with an access control system is the potential for a third party to manufacture or steal access credentials to enter your building. To prevent a breach, you should invest in integrated access control and video surveillance for identity verification. You can access both technologies in a single device with a video intercom reader. Integrating these innovative technologies allows you to make video and access information available on a single interface, making identity verification simple and efficient. If you hosted both tools on separate platforms, you would have to correlate data from different sources to verify the identity of a user.
Furthermore, to eliminate the manual effort of identity verification, you can integrate facial recognition software with the tools to automate the process. Only authorized users will be able to enter, and you can prevent unauthorized users from entering using stolen access credentials.
Summary
Investing in cyber and physical security can significantly lower your risk of falling victim to a data breach.
Data breaches consume time and money and could put the trust of your clients and stakeholders at risk, which could be fatal for your business. Consider the vulnerabilities of your existing system and whether you would benefit from reinforcing your cyber and physical security strategies.
As a brand leader, how are you involved in protecting your brand, business, and assets?
Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
