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Data security is something most of us would prefer to leave to the experts. All we want to know is that our compliance boxes are ticked and no nasty surprises are waiting for us.
So, what is your mental image of data? A large Excel spreadsheet; lots of ones and zeros like in the movie 'The Matrix'; or how about a large cork notice board with lists of all your customer information pinned to it. Regardless of how you see it, you need to ensure that 'others' don't. I’m focusing on the 'notice board' and addressing the complex issue of data security.
How do we protect the notice board from prying eyes, and those bent on evil?
There are those that will always devise methods to gain access to your notice board. To combat and mitigate the risks of a data breach, various techniques can be implemented.
If you have a huge notice board and the ability to sort and segregate your customer data into sections to target them for specific products/offers, then you have Big Data (of which much has been spoken of). The measures you have taken to stop people seeing, or accessing the notice board, constitute your data security, but do you have peace of mind? For the sake of ‘sleep-easiness’, it is best to check-in with the compliance and regulatory guys. There are two primary areas of legislation that have been devised to protect two of the most sensitive types of customer information - although they may not necessarily apply to every industry. They are health records and credit card details.
By making use of the “reasonable safeguards” you will have peace of mind that your notice board is protected. But, what safeguards will you take to maintain the protection of your customer data once it has been copied into your eDocuments from your uber-secure notice board? For example, you are going to send each of your customers their statement/invoice/policy document/payslip etc. from every line across your notice board. For the electronic format, you or your ESP will create a document and email it to your customers. You need to maintain a high level of security throughout the process.
Recommended checklist:
On the actual email cover page – the bare minimum:
In the document being attached:
Data security need not be the 'big monster'. Some industry best practices along logical representation of data and behind the correct levels of authentication will do the trick.
This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.
Boris Bialek Vice President and Field CTO, Industry Solutions at MongoDB
11 December
Kathiravan Rajendran Associate Director of Marketing Operations at Macro Global
10 December
Barley Laing UK Managing Director at Melissa
Scott Dawson CEO at DECTA
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