First it was Target, then Neiman Marcus and now, news is breaking that Michael’s Arts and Crafts has also suffered a major security breach.
These three retailers alone have left millions of customers with compromised payment data, resulting in fraud, theft and a lot of headaches for the consumer and the companies alike.
When customers don’t feel safe, that isn’t good for your brand. At a recent hybris software event, we heard about three simple ways companies can protect their data—or, if the worst comes to pass, get the problem under control, fast.
Companies cannot afford to take data security lightly. CDPs consolidate all your customer data – from every collection system – into a single database. That database then feeds into various downstream systems to be used by customer teams.
Test, test and test some more. If you’re not running regular penetration tests and vulnerability tests, you are vulnerable. It’s that simple. A firewall simply isn’t enough to guarantee that hackers can’t get into your most sensitive customer data. Regular testing will help you spot the faults in your system—and correct then before a breach.
Monitor and analyze. It’s easy to make a small mistake in coding that can have disastrous results. Companies that consistently and regularly monitor and analyze their systems will help ensure security, especially when using external systems and third-party applications.
Prepare for failure. It sounds simple, but being prepared for a systems failure is the best way to avoid one. Look at all your third party applications (and yes, test some more) and look to see if it will break under specific circumstances. For instance, can your system withstand a sudden onslaught of traffic? And if one application fails, will it take down the entire system? If you see a fault, create a pass-through to avoid a total system meltdown.
Stay connected. This may be the most simple tip of all, but perhaps the one most companies fail to do: create a contact list of the application experts on your team to keep at your fingertips. When that call comes at 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning, you don’t want to be searching your hard-drive or email archives for the phone numbers or email addresses.
