Is Your Website An Open Invitation To Identity Thieves?

If you own and operate an online shop, then you need to keep your customers' identities safe.

With identity theft numbers on the rise across the country, it's more important than ever to keep online thieves at bay.

With safe shopping in mind, here are just a few ways to protect your customers' personal information:

Identity Theft in the U.S.

It's unfortunate but true: identity theft is quickly becoming commonplace in the world of online shopping.

In fact, according to an ongoing study by IdentityTheft.info, a leading authority on U.S. identity theft, nearly 15 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.

On top of that, each year an additional 100 million Americans have their personal information compromised due to database breaches. Identity theft cases and personal information breaches result in approximately $50 billion in financial losses for both customers and business owners.

With more than seven million identity theft victims in 2015 so far, your online business needs to stay vigilant and keep its customers' personal information safe.

Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take to do just that.

Encrypt Customer Information

Just about every business and financial institution is turning to encryption to keep customer information safe and secure.

The article “Chip-Enabled Credit Cards are Coming: What You Need to Know” mentions state-of-the-art EMV credit cards that use dynamic, encrypted data.

Although your online shop probably doesn't handle credit cards directly, you should still encrypt your customers' financial and personal data.

By using encryption software, you can protect each transaction on your site, including the financial and personal information that goes along with it.

With that said, it's important not to collect more customer information than you need.

Collecting credit card numbers, expiration dates, and security codes are mandatory, but you definitely shouldn't collect social security or driver's license numbers on your site unless they are absolutely necessary.

Update Your Site

There's a big difference between a website that starts with http and a website that starts with https.

Because you run an online shop that collects financial information from customers, you must use a secure site that starts with https. This is your first line of defense against customer identity theft.

From there, you'll also want to install and update a firewall on your computer system.

In addition, updating anti-virus and malware software regularly is also good practice.

Finally, make sure you limit access to your system - if you're the only employee at your online shop, then there's no need to give anyone else access.

Encourage Strong Customer Passwords

If your customers have accounts with your online shop that allows them to store their financial and personal information, you need to encourage them to use strong passwords. You can do this by updating your password policy.

Asking your customers to use numerous characters, symbols, and numbers as well as a combination of upper and lower case letters will help them protect their identities on their end.

Likewise, make sure your customers aren't using the same password for multiple online accounts.

When you're ready to put an end to identity theft, take advantage of some of the protection pointers above.