Online payments are becoming more and more common, and cybercrime surrounding virtual payments is also on the rise. When you do business online, your customers want to know that their payment information is safe.

Here are some ways to protect customer online payments.

Seek Certification

SSL security certificates are a great way to showcase your business’s credibility. These certificates can keep data secure between servers, increase your Google rankings, and improve conversion rates. For more information, take a look at this article.

Implement Cloud Storage

Unstructured data, like emails with customer information or other exported data, can be stolen much more easily than data that lives in your business’s internal systems.

Rather than create potential for theft, you can implement cloud storage options that both allow for offsite use and also keep your customers protected.

Leverage Your FAQs

While you shouldn’t have to teach your customers everything about best practices for keeping their information safe, you can offer some insight that can educate your customers and increase your brand’s trustworthiness.

Include a few security-based FAQs to show your customers what processes and protocols are in place to safeguard their payment information.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication

It’s important to do everything you can to improve your customers’ online account security. Two-factor authentication includes steps you put in place to verify a customer’s login information. Once a username and password has been provided, a second piece of information is needed to gain access.

Authy describes the components of 2FA can come from a few different categories:

•  Something you know – includes a personal identification number (PIN), another password or passphrase, answers to personal questions or a specific pattern of keystrokes
• Something you have – this includes information that come from something in the customer’s possession, like a credit card, smartphone, or small hardware token
• Something you are – this is the most advanced option. It includes something like a fingerprint, iris scan, or voice authentication

AVS Checks

AVS (address verification service) checks are another great way to safeguard information. This works because many cyber criminals will have certain bank or card information, but will likely not have the correct address information since it doesn’t exist in tandem with the payment type.

Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Fraud Patterns

Many fraudsters operate in patterns. If and when you identify that you or your customers are victims of cybercrime, be sure to pay close attention to the details of that fraud.

Your payment processor will go a long way toward creating a safe payment environment. But it’s also good to be aware of and train your employees on the hallmarks of these patterns. It’s often easy to spot patterns based on online industry, product categories, and payment methods.

Protect Yourself with Insurance

We’ve all seen the headlines about how huge retailers and small businesses alike have taken huge cybersecurity hits. And you also hear how they had to weather the various lawsuits that come after.

Whether the liability is on the affected business or not, cyber liability insurance is a great way to protect your business before something bad happens.

Work with a Reliable Online Payment Processor

Payment security starts with a reputable provider. Streamline your payment processing with ReliaFund’s all-in-one platform. You can process credit card, check, online, recurring, and ACH payments.

Contact us to learn more.