Keeping brand trust high throughout the holiday season2 min read

As we head into the holiday season, it’s time for that yearly reminder to consumers and businesses alike: take care when shopping, both online and in person.

This is key for many reasons: for one, nobody wants valuable personal identifiable information or payment information to be stolen. On the business side, a cyberattack can be costly and difficult to deal with – and cost them their reputation as a safe and reputable organisation.

Cyberattackers will take advantage of the season of gifting, creating fake alternate pages for consumers to enter their information into, sometimes even going as far as to phish for the answers to common security questions, such as your mother’s maiden name.

With the Covid-19 pandemic still in full force, the bulk of shopping this year will likely be online. So, here are a few tips keep your business up and running throughout the holiday season:

Ensure your data governance is in order. This may seem simple, but it can be anything but. Do you understand the lifecycle of the data your organisation is collecting? Who is responsible for each segment of data, and what integrity controls and safeguards are in place to protect it? These are just a few key questions that you should be able to answer effectively – and if not, it’s time to put a plan in place.

Ensure employee compliance to cybersecurity measures. Similar to the point above, though this is a simple concept, it can be difficult to enforce. Make sure you educate your employees not only about the best practices of cybersecurity, but the reason why they have to follow these processes. Having buy-in will encourage your employees to be more vigilant about their digital risk – after all, who wants to be responsible for a data breach?

Be aware of your third-party risks. Lastly, understand and monitor the risks coming from your overarching digital ecosystem. The chances are your organisation relies on several third parties, for anything from HR software to key suppliers to data storage and emails. Using a tool like CyDesk can help you and your security team understand the risks, and manage them accordingly.

Guarding your cybersecurity may seem like a technical issue, but at the end of the day, it is at the heart of your business. Ultimately, the best gift you can give your organisation is keeping your cybersecurity posture is strong throughout the blur of shopping, ordering and gift giving.