Covid has drastically launched the e-commerce industry five years into the future. You can order almost anything online these days but that convenience comes with a cost. Retail clouds are now overflowing with consumer data, which makes them extremely vulnerable targets for hackers. While a surplus of consumer data can have its downsides, if used correctly, retailers can turn it into an opportunity to boost sales. Information from customer’s accounts, locations, browsing history, and profiles can all increase sales by up to 10% if they’re used for the correct marketing purposes. It’s important that you utilize this data but also take steps to ensure that it’s secured.
The first step that your IT team should take is to ensure that you’ve set aside enough of your budget to maintain cybersecurity measures. Review where your biggest threats lie and prioritize where to allocate funds so that potential threats can be diverted. It’s also important that you encrypt sensitive data as a form of extra protection when sending it throughout your network. Strengthening malware can also serve as an extra barrier for sensitive information. Finally, physical and insider threats should be closely monitored so that access to a company’s whole network doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
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