Digital privacy and security are hot topics these days. Between Apple’s battle with the government over encryption, to the perennial headlines of cybercriminal attacks (particularly during tax season), end-users are understandably bewildered and fearful for the safety of their identity and online data.
Despite the anxiety over security, many of the web’s top sites still don’t employ some basic precautions for their users. All it can take is one high-profile data breach for customers to lose faith in a website. And while no one can promise perfect protection from hackers, there are a few products and services that make it much harder to breakthrough.
But who should you be marketing these security features too? Customers at the enterprise level may already have an army of IT specialists protecting their digital assets. But small- and medium-sized businesses often do not have in-house access to these kinds of resources. They’re going to look to you for guidance and security, so it’s good to know what’s actually out there that can help them.
The vulnerability of small businesses
With privacy and security concerns at the front of everyone’s minds, trust has become a valuable commodity online. It won’t matter if a product has superior features, or a price point beats the competition, if customers can’t trust a business to conduct their transactions safely, nobody’s going to be buying.
Unfortunately, cybercriminals know that small businesses often aren’t fully protected. Even though smaller businesses don’t have the sensitive data volume of an enterprise, 31% of online attacks are still aimed at companies with 250 or fewer employees. The fact that they’re soft targets is what makes it worth hackers’ time to attack them.
What you should be offering
For many of your customers, you will be the first (and maybe only) link between themselves and their business’ online footprint. You need to be the expert, which means arming yourself with the facts yourself. Fortunately, there are many resources available online, both for your own education, as well as for passing information through to your customers.
Symantec offers many such resources, none more appropriate than the guide to “Securing Your Small Business Online.” The ebook covers several contemporary security concerns for business owners, even those they may have thought they were already protected against. For instance, a business may have safeguarded its login and transaction pages with SSL, not realizing that hackers have since developed new methods of hijacking sensitive data when users have navigated to unsecured pages on the same site. The solution, in this case, is to employ Always-On SSL certificates, which encrypts data from the moment users first arrive on the site.
This guide and these security products are just the tip of what Enom and Symantec can help you set up to offer your own customers. Making these features part of your own service lineup can prevent expensive and embarrassing breaches, saving everyone involved from numerous headaches. Drop our sales team a line if you’d like more details on integrating security products into your sales flow.