Keeping Your Business Secure in the New Year

Who doesn't love a little self improvement, especially when it comes to their business? Start the year off strong by putting proper security measures in place, making it possible for you to improve your experience as a business owner and improve customer satisfaction. The best time to begin is now — let's dive right in to the ways you can keep your business secure in the New Year!

Take Initiative With Security Preparations

Staying proactive as a business owner is a great way to guarantee control over how your business is run. This is particularly important when it comes to security practices and potential fraudulent activity. It's best to stay one step ahead, allowing you to take action in any situation that could possibly come your way. Not only do these things take time to prepare, but it puts you in a good place to protect your business from the unexpected. There's nothing worse than the sense of panic about a fraudulent incident and scrambling to protect your business. It's crucial to prepare now! 

Adopt Current Technology Options

Staying up-to-date with current technology is one of the best ways to have your business remain safe from unwanted fraudulent activity. To be clear, fraud is inevitable, but there are ways you can reduce the risks significantly. 

EMV Chip Card Technology

Making it a priority to accept EMV chip card technology at your business will help reduce fraud in various ways. For example, when you upgrade your device(s), you're welcoming the best available technology for validating credit and debit cards. This enables you to reduce the chances of accepting fake cards while also giving you the advantage of dual verification. — this is what authenticates that the person is the actual card owner.

Increase Security for Online Credit Card Processing

Unfortunately, card-not-present transactions, such as e-commerce payments, have a higher chance of being fraudulent. Fortunately, there are ways for you to prevent fraudulent activity from occurring continuously. It's in your best interest to instill online restrictions, like Address Verification System (AVS) and Card Verification Value (CVV). This is to confirm the information entered for an online transaction during checkout matches the same information on file.

Payment Gateways

Another way to protect your business from unnecessary fraud, specifically for online payments, is by taking advantage of a payment gateway. Payment gateways use encryption as a security feature to convert sensitive data into a code that can be translated only by those in possession of the algorithm. This is one of the best ways to accept online payments as it takes care of authorizing the payment and making sure there is enough data to finalize the payment. The gateway keeps the details of the credit card safe by encrypting all sensitive information that it contains. This process guarantees that private details are passed securely between the customer and merchant.

Maintain Your PCI Compliance

When was the last time you checked your PCI status? This is one of the most important security standards to keep up with, so you want to make sure that you're in good standing. Being PCI compliant determines how you store, handle and transmit cardholder data to create protection of your customers' payment details and keeps your business safe from fraud. To get the most out of fraud prevention, you want to ensure that your business meets all the guidelines to avoid a non-compliance fee. Even better, payment processors, such as TransNational Payments, will assist you with your PCI compliance. 

Conclusion:

There's no sure-fire way to stay safe from fraud, but there are plenty of ways to avoid it and reduce those risks! Taking the time to educate yourself, staying proactive and keeping up with modern technology helps tremendously. It's only going to pay off in the end for your business and your customers. What will you do to keep your business secure in the New Year?