While providing online services helps you expand your business beyond your geographic location and attract more customers, your entity also becomes vulnerable to data theft and fraud. This makes investing in online payment security crucial to guard your company and protect customer data. Read on for six online payment security tips for your business.
1. PCI compliance
The first step to ensure that you run secure online payments is to ascertain that you are PCI compliant. The payment card industry (PCI) sets security standards for electronic payment processing. To effectively run your business, you must comply with the set standards. Have your business assessed for PCI to ensure that you meet the security expectations of the industry before you start accepting credit or debit card payments. This will also keep you from legal suits or paying hefty fines for not being PCI compliant.
2. Do not store payment data
While you may be tempted to store credit card information after a transaction for future reference, the customer data could be vulnerable to hacking. Be sure to delete any transactions once you verify customer information via your card scanner. This will keep your business and the customer safe. If you have to store credit card data for record-keeping, only use the last four digits to identify the client.
3. Acquire an SSL certificate for your site
Did you know that more than 95% of hacks target small businesses? If your company is still young, you may overlook security as you feel you cannot be a cybercrime target, which puts you and customer data in danger. Ensure that you get a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate for your website to protect your business’s and client information.
4. Verify every transaction
With the rise of identity theft today, you need to find ways to verify that transactions are being made by the actual debit or credit card owner, even in a Card Not Present (CNP) situation. You can achieve this by;
- Ensuring an Address Verification (AVS) match
- Have customers include their CVV number or security code on the back of their credit or debit cards
- Monitor customer purchasing patterns to identify unusual buying
5. Tokenize online payments
Tokenization is a process where credit or debit card data is exchanged with a secure digital token, created through strong encryption to complete an online payment. Token often works with a one-time cryptogram generated in a customer’s device, reducing the interception of client data. Tokenization will not only secure your online payments. It is also cheaper than compliance with PCI standards.
6. Adopt multi-factor authentication
Hackers or identity thieves can easily deduce clients’ passwords no matter how complex they are. This makes relying on a username and password to process online payments unsafe. You can choose to protect your client’s information by introducing multi-factor authentication. A two-step authentication involves;
- Filling in username and passwords
- Providing extra information unique to the client, including fingerprints, face scans, email, phone calls, and SMS code
Endnote
Securing online payment is crucial to prevent data breaches and fraud. Data breaches lead to loss of credibility and client distrust, while you could incur tremendous losses due to fraudulent payments. Keep the above tips in mind to help secure online payments for your business.
