You would not believe how many times I’ve heard this or a similar statement. It’s easy to think that because we’re in the middle of America, somehow that makes us undesirable to hackers. But that’s far from the truth. Hackers want in your network for many different reasons. For today, let’s just consider one reason — the treasure trove of customer and employee personal information that you have stored in your business cloud or computer networks.
Let’s begin with four important facts –
1. All businesses have valuable information.
Do you have customer names and addresses? Employee payroll information? If you’re involved in healthcare, do you have protected health information? All of this information is valuable to hackers.
2. Bad guys really do want your stuff.
That same internet and email that gives you access to customers and clients far from your office or store also makes you accessible to bad guys far from your office or store.
"It's easy to think that because we're in the middle of America, somehow that makes us undesirable to hackers. But that's far from the truth."
3. Customer and employee personal information (of all kinds) may be protected by law.
We’ve all heard of HIPAA and know that protects personal health information. But did you know many other laws also protect customer information?
Things like CCPA, GDPR, SHIELD Act, COPPA, and others deal with personal information protection. More laws are being added to the books every year, so it is important to get a handle on protecting customer and employee personal information.
4. Losing customer or employee personal information may cost you big bucks.
If bad guys steal your customer or employee information, it is not unusual for remediation to cost upwards of $300 per lost record.
The good news is that you don’t have to just sit and wait for the hackers to steal all your information. There are steps you can take to protect the personal data of your customers and employees, as well as protect the integrity of your business, and we’d like to help you do so.
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