Safety Tips Every Digital Marketing Department Should Try

Every Digital Marketing Department handles private information across a myriad of online channels leaving clients vulnerable to security risk.

Safety Tips Every Digital Marketing Department Should Try

If you happen to manage a digital marketing department, then you likely work with data a great deal. This is necessary in the digital marketing space as data is used to help you make important decisions.

For instance;

before marketing a product, you’d need to know who you’re marketing to which is where data becomes useful. However, data often consists of sensitive information such as credit card information, names, and addresses, so safeguarding it is of the utmost importance.

Keeping your customers; information safe should be a top priority, here are safety tips that every digital marketing department should try.

Avoid Malware

One of the first safety tips that any digital marketing department should be thinking about is steering clear of malware.

For those who don’t already know, malware is malicious software that is designed with the sole intent of infiltrating a PC or network without knowledge or consent. This could result in a data breach which could be chaotic for any business.

See below a few ways that you can avoid malware.

Protect your PC: Your PC tends to have a significant amount of private and personal information. Protect your PC by encrypting your hard drive and using security software. Good ones should consist of identity theft, risky websites, and hacker attacks in a single solution.

Tidy up your email: Your mail often contains spam emails. Delete them regularly and see if you can activate antispam to reduce unwanted emails as well as block risks.

Pay attention to location: If you want to protect yourself against malware, make sure you pay attention to the location. See if you can get the security settings on laptops to change automatically to the most appropriate level of protection for employees. This should increase security when they’re going in and out of the office.

Create a Department Policy

Sometimes, the only way to make sure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to online safety is to create a policy.

Train your department on safety online regularly and put measures in place to ensure that they comply. When creating the policy, here are a few things worth including.

Applications These days, there are so many applications with varying functions. However, not all of them are safe so giving employees guidelines or protocol in place when it comes to downloading them may be ideal.

Appoint an ambassador Aside from the ICO department, there should be one or two people employees can go to if they have any questions about the policy and security online. This person can also monitor them to make sure everyone is following due process.

Enforce consequences If you want to be able to successfully implement any new policies, consequences for ones that aren’t followed are key. This should help keep employees on their toes which is what you need for tighter security.

Have a Backup Plan

It is advisable that you have a plan in place in case your data is breached and you experience a hack.

You don’t want to be caught unaware, so planning ahead and having a procedure that would be followed is a good idea. Below are a few steps you should take if there’s ever a data breach.

  1. Find out what was stolen – One of the first steps to take when you experience a data breach is finding out what was stolen. You can use a company like Secure Forensics to help you carry out an investigation and find out how the cybercriminals got access.
  2. Change passwords – When you experience a data breach, changing passwords is one of the first things that you should do. This should help stop cybercriminals from gaining further access.
  3. Contact relevant institutions – If any of your payment details have been stolen, then you should contact relevant finance institutions. This is important so that they can cancel your cards and compensate you if money has been stolen depending on their policy.
  4. Get a monitoring service – To prevent a breach from happening a second time, you should sign up for an identity monitoring service. They typically monitor your accounts with credit bureaus, watch for identity theft, and stolen credit cards.

Mitigate Risks on Social Networks

Social networks are here to stay, so as part of a digital marketing department, you should be teaching best practices for security purposes.

There are many ways that your marketing team can use social media without putting your business at risk.

To start with, define what’s confidential and make sure they refrain from sharing such information. Also, it’s important that if you use social media for customer support, that you advise customers not to put personal information in a post and where it’s appropriate to share confidential information.

Stay Up to Date

Things are constantly changing when it comes to safety online, so staying up to date is necessary.

Know what the latest trends in cybersecurity are and see how you can implement them in your department.

Sometimes updates can be easy to overlook and neglect. A prime example could be your very website if you’re running a WordPress website.

It’s essential to update your system and plugins or your site will most likely fall victim to malware – just check out some of these stats;

73.2% of the most popular WordPress installations are vulnerable to vulnerabilities which can be detected using free automated tools.” – WpWhiteSecurity.com

 

The four most common WordPress malware infections are Backdoors, Drive-by downloads, Pharma hacks, and Malicious redirects.” – Smashing Magazine

 

Only 39% of WordPress websites are running the most current version of the software (4.8).” – WordPress

 

According to a recent report by wpscan.org, of the 3,972 known WordPress security vulnerabilities:
52% are from WordPress plugins
37% are from core WordPress
11% are from WordPress themes” – ithemes.com

 

 

You can use the many resources that there are online to help you stay in the loop. You should know what the latest scams are and the most effective ways to avoid them.

 

Boost Network Security

It may also help if you boost network security when trying to stay safe online. Whenever you’re using wi-fi in public places, be sure to use a virtual private network (VPN) to help make the network more secure. Public wi-fi may not have a password protected router making your team a lot more vulnerable to threats.

Have a BYOD Plan

If your team brings their own devices to work or uses them offsite for work-related things, come up with a comprehensive BYOD plan with security in mind. This means you will likely have to provide employees with the right information and software so they can use their devices safely.

 

Digital marketing is an important part of any company that helps create visibility, connect with customers, and capture new prospects. In light of this, making sure that you carry out activities in the safest way possible should ensure that all of your efforts are crowned with success as opposed to damage from data breaches.