Ways to offer exceptional security to sensitive Data

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How to offer exceptional security to sensitive
data in Top 6 Ways
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Introduction

• In todays world, data is the most precious
  resource we have. With the increase in the value
  of data, of course, comes the increasing threat
  of data breaches.
• It is a worrying trend that data breaches have
  become all too common in the telemarketing and
  communications sector.
• At its worst, a security breach could end up
  costing company millions, but even at its most
  feeble, companies have to deal with a wastage of
  time and potentially losing out on business due
  to scam attempts, fraudulent calls, data breach
  attempts, etc.
• A 2017 survey reports that a medium-sized call
  center could be hit with over a thousand
  fraudulent calls a month, on an average.
• That is a staggering number for an industry that
  deals with sensitive data on a daily basis.

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• Call centers have evolved in their operations
  massively over the last decade. They have shifted
  from traditional call-to-call procedures to more
  sophisticated, computer-aided schemes.
• Today, they utilize technology to store and
  retrieve all sorts of data about each and every
  customer including personal data.
• They also conduct sales directly over the phone
  through online transactions, in which case they
  store sensitive information about clients bank
  accounts, transactional details, etc.
• Considering how much confidential data call
  centers typically store, it is now more important
  than ever to assess our security measures and
  ensure that under no circumstances do we leave
  the safety of personal and private information to
  chance.

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• We need to ensure that any payments that
  customers make over the phone are absolutely
  safe, and that access to their personal data is
  under secure eyes.
• The most common of all forms of fraud in the call
  center industry is identity fraud. Therefore, we
  must be vigilant in confirming identity before we
  allow any access to sensitive information.
• Matt Lautz, the President and CIO of CorvisaCloud
  says, Identity theft is something all contact
  centers need to be cognizant of, and it is
  absolutely essential to take the right steps to
  verify who they are talking to.
• The issue of identity theft is obviously a major
  concern, but it is by no means the only problem
  call centers have to deal with.
• In this article, we talk about some of the ways
  to ensure better protection and security for
  financial and private data that call centers can
  employ to beef up their security systems and keep
  themselves immune to the threats of fraud.

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Strengthen your QA protocols

• As mentioned before, identity fraud is the
  leading way of data breaches that occur in call
  centers.
• Not just that, the number of global call center
  fraud cases have spiked up by 45 in the last
  decade.
• In a call center, an agent cannot physically see
  the customer to validate their identity.
  Therefore, they need to use stringent questions
  and answers to understand who they are talking
  to.
• There are fraudsters out there trained in the art
  of manipulation to gain unauthorized access.
• That is why, customers and agents need to settle
  security questions and answers right at the
  beginning of the association, and these questions
  need to be correctly answered for every
  subsequent call before any personal information
  is revealed.
• It is important to ask open-ended questions, so
  that the fraudster cannot get lucky with a guess.
  It is also useful to ask questions that are not
  on any documents, but are a product of your
  previous conversations.

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Control access according to clearance

• This is a very important step to ensuring
  security. In a call center, as in every
  organization, there is a hierarchy of position,
  and a wider access of information as we move up
  the authority ladder.
• Every piece of information that is private or
  sensitive in nature needs to be hidden from
  anybody without access authority for it.
• For example, in a call center, the Managing
  Director would have access to any information
  stored and used by the company.
• The managers under him would have all the data
  relevant to their specific departments.

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• The team leaders under them would have access to
  all the data pertaining to the customers that the
  team is assigned, and the employees at the agent
  level would have access to data about the
  customer they are calling or about to call.
• This chain of command is important to ensure that
  data does not fall into the wrong hands. An
  ordered structure like this ensures two things.
• First, it makes sure that everybody has access to
  data relevant to their work and their work only.
  Second, it ensures that an employee has absolute
  idea of whatever data he or she is handling.
• If someone gained access to data they shouldnt
  have, they would not know what to do with it, and
  would thus be vulnerable to a hack even though
  that person himself had no malicious intent.

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Keep your agents well-trained and educated about
the latest threats

• The number one reason for fraud continues to be
  due to lack of awareness among agents to spot the
  signs.
• All cases of manipulation involving identity
  thefts fall under this category.
• In addition, failure to recognize toxic attempts
  at passwords, easy recovery systems, unsafe
  public domains and manipulative interactions are
  all caused because agents are not educated enough
  to know what the latest threats are, how to
  identify them and what to do to prevent them.
• Agents need to be provided periodic training so
  that they can stay ahead of the game and protect
  the data pertinent to your customers, as well as
  keep the company safe from the threat of a breach.

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Implement multiple layers of security

• Given the sheer volume and value of the data a
  call center has, it is easy to understand why
  they are a major target for illegal attempts.
• Many of the preventive methods around today are
  great at stopping the majority of attacks, but
  our successes are not judged on the attacks we
  stop.
• Even if one person is able to get through, the
  losses are in the millions.
• Therefore, implementing multiple layers of
  security is essential to protect your systems,
  especially in situations where customers are
  transferring money over the phone for purchases.
• A sophisticated hacking technique can get through
  one layer, maybe even two, but it becomes nearly
  impossible to get through four or five highly
  secure layers of protection.
• This way, even if one method of protection is
  compromised, it becomes increasingly difficult
  for a hacker to circumvent the entire system.

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Utilize reliable password policies

• The Trustwave Global Security Report of 2015
  found that 28 of global data breaches were
  because of weak passwords which could be easily
  circumvented.
• Especially in case of financial transactions, it
  is seen that a lot of customers who are unaware
  of the requirements for a strong password opt for
  something very common because it is convenient to
  use.
• Agents need to first and foremost implement a
  strong password policy in internal affairs, all
  business terminals, servers, firewalls, routers
  and other network devices.
• Second, they need to constantly remind customers
  to do the same on their end as well. They need to
  drive home the point about how an easy password
  leaves a customers bank account details
  vulnerable to interception and malicious use.
• In addition, encryption policies need to be
  applied so that passwords can remain waterproof
  and allow full functioning only after strict
  validation checks.

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Opt for biometrics to validate identity

• Biometrics is a relatively new technology we have
  been using for secure systems, and it has changed
  the way we control access to sensitive data.
• Voice biometrics is a technique of identifying a
  unique voice print for every individual, and then
  matching the callers voice print with the sample
  of the customer provided beforehand.
• The method is still in its nascent stages, but
  claims to have a very high level of accuracy. For
  the companies, this would provide a foolproof way
  to check for identity of the callers.
• For the customer as well, this is a much more
  convenient way to authenticate because it does
  not take up any extra time and does not require
  them to continually answer questions and go
  through a verification process every time they
  call in to make a transaction.

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