There is a cause for alarm in the financial sector resulting from the increasing rise in retail fraud.
This worrisome trend has been confirmed by reports released by a LexisNexis study which indicates a rise in the retail fraud cases from 2015-2016.
The negative impact on the percentage of revenue has been reported to have increased from 1.32% to 1.47% during this period.
The major concern for retail businesses and their customers is the increasing rate of mobile fraud.
It has led to a reduction in the expected revenue from mCommerce merchants; this unfortunate trend has given rise to questions about the security measures put in place to monitor mobile transactions.
A significant number of mobile transactions made through mCommerce are reported as fraudulent every month.
With the expected increase in active mCommerce channels over the next two years, there should be a system to ensure adequate security for customers.
Currently, the number of mCommerce channels optimized for mobile transactions is less than 20%. With an additional 32% of the existing mCommerce companies expected to adopt this system within the next 12 months depending on the financial capacity and the extent to which the companies think it is important for their businesses.
On average merchants exclusive to the US have indicated a rise of 8% during the course of last year as the value of fraud losses, the representation in dollar depicts a loss of about $2.40 from chargebacks, fees and product replacements demanded by customers for various reasons.
Make sure your business isn’t a victim of online fraud and use these 3 security hacks;
Security Hack 1: Create Stronger Passwords For Your Accounts
A simple way entrepreneurs and SMB leaders can enhance their online security is to ensure the use of secure passwords that cannot be easily compromised.
It seems so simple that it is commonly ignored.
There is currently a wide range of online applications designed to make several kinds of business operations easy to process.
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What is commonly practiced is the public display of these passwords since the system is publicly used by the entire team.
This is not a safe practice.
Secure and difficult to guess passwords is recommended as a good form of data protection in any kind of organization.
Business owners are reminded of the need for stronger passwords on occasions like the World Password Day which will be recognized on May 4th 2017.
A strong password gives the user a high level of confidence while using the various financial services and other applications with sensitive information online.
Many members of the online community will confirm that they would rather continue using the easy to remember passwords they have been using over the years, even for new programs they have just had installed. Increasing the level of protection for the business is more important.
The best passwords are characterized by a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters and random figures. Special characters can also be included for more security. Check out the Password Generator to help.
It should be noted that using the exact same password for your corporate accounts and other personal accounts can have serious security consequences.
There have been reports of a string of breaches into the accounts of a company, cases where the same password was used for all accounts and could be accessed leading to a significant loss of data.
Security Hack 2: Use A 3rd Party Payment Gateway
The choice of using a third party gateway provides extra protection because these duly registered and accredited gateways have been checked to confirm their PCI compliance.
This is good news for the customers who will operate under this already secured compliance system.
Third party payment Gateway providers like Total Processing Payment Solutions are classified as Tier-1 service providers after passing all the audit requirements as stated by the regulatory bodies.
This means, just by using their service you are fully PCI compliant. Alternatively, other providers can be used who are not registered gateway providers.
They provide web hosting services with fewer than 300,000 transactions like this, however, their businesses are not professionally audited and this can pose a risk for the merchant.
To maintain the confidence of using a PCI compliant system, the acquirer is expected to meet the standards as specified by the brand and this expectation is also stated as a requirement from the merchant who needs to be PCI compliant.
Security Hack 3: Train Your Staff In Security Compliance
The best secure environment in any workplace is one where the staff have updated knowledge about the basic security measures needed to protect official sensitive information and company resources.
This will be implemented by creating a system that makes it mandatory for these secure practices and policies to be adhered to while carrying out all forms of official duties.
Training the employees to become proficient in deploying these security practices is the best way to prevent any form of cyber breach.
The importance of creating a system that permits regular security training to update the employees on the latest security innovations should never be overlooked.
The aim here is to educate the employees about commonly reported security threats and other avenues through which the system can be breached while educating the staff about the basic methods that can be used to stop these attacks.
Security challenges should be considered a top priority in every organization. End users can also be encouraged to invest in the company shares as a means of increasing the security against these online threats.
Employees can also be a part of this buy-in process when they buy the shares of the company they work with, the management can then focus on educating them on how to protect the business together since they are now part-owners of the business.
