With hacks and data breaches in the news on almost a weekly basis, every business wants to make sure that their customers’ data is as secure as possible. If your customers access your service through an online account that they sign into, they may be particularly vulnerable to cybercrime.
Customer accounts are often a top target , as they can be a very rich source of data for those who are looking to commit crimes. So, what can you do to ensure that your customer accounts are as secure as possible?
Identity Verification
An identity verification service will ensure that a customer is who they are meant to be when they are logging in. This identity verification service allows you to confirm that your customer is using a real identity associated with their phone number when they sign up for an account and login in the future. Cognito HQ can be used in a wide range of industries including finance, healthcare, eCommerce, real estate, online dating and more to ensure that it’s difficult for anybody who isn’t actually your customer to access their account.
Require a Strong Password
Strong passwords reduce the likelihood of hacking, but unfortunately, people are still inclined to pick a password that is easy for them to remember. However, a password that’s easy to remember is also likely going to be easy to guess. When customers are creating a new account with you and choosing their login credentials, it’s important to ensure that you require them to create a strong password with a combination of lower- and upper-case letters, numbers, and special characters.
Ask Customers to Change Passwords Regularly
The longer somebody has the same password, the bigger their risk of being compromised. That’s why it’s important for everybody to change their password every 90 days or so, but most people don’t remember to do this and simply continue using the same password for months or years.
To improve security even further, you might want to add a feature to customer accounts where they are required to change their password after a certain timeframe has passed, and will not be able to access their account until it’s done.
Only Ask for Necessary Data
When a customer signs up for an account with you, avoid asking them for any data that isn’t completely necessary to the service that you provide. The more data you hold on a customer, the more catastrophic a breach could be. If you only need their name and address, for example, don’t ask for anything more as this is only more data stored that could be stolen.
Run Tests
Finally, run regular tests to determine how easy or difficult it would be for a hacker to access your customer accounts. You can do this with the help of an ethical hacker, who will attempt to hack into customer accounts to exploit any weaknesses and determine where improvements can be made to security.
Customer account breaches are happening more and more frequently, so it’s never been more important to ensure that yours are as secure as possible.
