3 Simple Yet Effective Ways to Get Contact Center Security Right

Virtual contact centers are facing ever-increasing risks of phishing and ransomware attacks. While data protection tools can only go so far and protect against external threats, the most significant risk to customer data comes from within. PCI Pal’s Geoff Forsyth shares three tips to protect customer data and maintain contact center security while working remotely. 

COVID-19 has presented new challenges across all industries, but particularly for contact centers. As we all made the rapid adjustment to remote work earlier this year, contact center professionals had to consider how to maintain the same level of customer service from home while ensuring security and compliance with regional data privacy regulations. 

At the same time, fraudsters and other bad actors ramped up their attacks to take advantage of the vulnerable situation, with Verizon recently reporting an increaseOpens a new window in phishing, brute-force, and ransomware attacks during COVID-19. It is more important than ever to ensure the security of contact centers, but how do we accomplish this when our contact centers are operating remotely?

Here are three ways to safeguard customer experience in virtual contact centers: 

1. Company-Issued Devices & Ensure Systems Are Up to Date with Antivirus Software 

At the beginning of COVID-19, many companies scrambled to get their workers up and running from home as quickly as possible, and security fell by the wayside. Some companies even offered employees WFH stipends to create a comfortable working environment; but how much money or time was spent on ensuring that employees had the proper tools and knowledge to protect their home equipment from cyber threatsOpens a new window ? To protect your company and customers’ sensitive data, provide employees with company-issued endpoints and other necessary equipment to prevent employees from working from their potentially compromised personal devices. Additionally, make sure all employees have anti-virus software installed and are keeping their computers and all software up-to-date. 

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2. Push for Tougher Passwords  

 We all know the importance of strong passwords, but that hasn’t stopped many people from engaging in risky online behaviors like using the same password across multiple websites. During this period of work from home when employees may be more lax about using their personal equipment for work or their work equipment for personal use, it is important that they’re not only practicing secure behaviors for their work-related logins but also for their own personal accounts. 

Ensure account security by requiring employees to create strong passwords using numbers and symbols, change passwords often, and secure them in a safe place. A password manager, such as Dashlane or Lastpass are great options to ensure employees can vary their passwords without forgetting all of them. 

Furthermore, it’s important that employees have multi-factor authentication set up on their accounts if they don’t already. Just as you would get a notification to your phone if there were an unknown login to your bank account, you can get notifications about unusual logins across your business accounts as well. Catching account security issues before they become a problem is possible with multi-factor authentication and setting it up only takes five minutes. 

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3. Make Sure Your Business is PCI Compliant

Few things are worse than having your financial security compromised; as a company, having to tell your customers that their sensitive credit card information has been stolen is not a conversation you want to have and can have negative impacts on customer trust and loyalty. In fact, a recent survey from PCI Pal found that 64% of Americans would avoid businesses that suffered a COVID-19 related data breach for several months or even permanently. 

Ensuring your business is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), an industry-standard required for businesses that accept card payments, will keep your customers’ sensitive credit card information secure and out of the hands of bad actors. Look for solutions that offer capabilities like Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) masking technology to enable safe transactions between a customer and contact center agent when sharing sensitive information over the phone. Not only will this keep your customers’ information secure, but it will provide them with a much-needed sense of security and reassurance during this sensitive time.

Baseline Security Controls for Protecting Customer Data 

New threats are emerging, with hackers working overtime on phishing attempts and other attacks to steal consumers’ and businesses’ sensitive information. As a result, contact centers and other organizations will need to brace themselves for a potential uptick in data breach attempts in 2021. However, if we are able to secure our contact center agents remotely now by stepping up a login and computer security and ensuring compliance with the standards that exist, we will be more than prepared for whatever 2021 may bring. 

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