8 ways to improve your customer service security

"I forgot my password. Please help me. I have a rush order - please!?!"

Pretty innocent start that happens quite often in discussions with your customer service agents, isn't it?

But this is where your customer service security can begin to be undermined.

Did you know that cyberattacks target 43% of small businesses?

Your customer service cannot be 100% safe from security risks.

“Wait,” you say. "Why would hackers specifically target my customer support center?"

You may be thinking that as you approach 175 zettabytes (that's the number 175 followed by 21 zeros) of collective data by 2025, several gigabytes of your customers' data may seem unimportant to scammers and cybercriminals.

This happens to tickle the interest of scammers on the web, especially if they see flaws in your protection.

For this reason, you should be armed with practical strategies on how to improve your customer service security. Keep reading to find out exactly why you need them and how to apply them in practice.

Why bother with customer service security?

The security of personal data is an essential factor in ensuring the success of data governance. Neither your service staff nor your customers want to fall victim to manipulative and fraudulent online activity. At the same time, robust security equates to ensuring customer trust. In addition, a strict and sufficient privacy policy gives you an edge over your competitors.

Here is the list of facts and statistics that prove to be pretty compelling reasons to prioritize consumer privacy and inspire you to research possible ways to improve your customer service security:

For example, 59% of buyers would not want to do business with a company that suffered a cyberattack in the last year. The average cost of a data breach was 4.24 million in 2021. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that the global costs of cybercrime will reach $10.5 trillion per year by 2025. Symantec recorded a 48% increase in cyberattacks with malicious attachments via Office files. COVID-19 was a common decoy in 6.9 million phishing emails intercepted by Trend Micro. Ransomware attacks hit a new business every 10 seconds in 2020. How cybercriminals can gain access to your support team and customers

Security incidents become even more likely as cybercriminals know their job very well. So they first look for the most vulnerable targets exposed to hazards and risks: passwords, emails, unprotected networks, IoT devices, mobile phones, personal laptops, etc. Then, after analyzing the vulnerabilities, they come up with a devious plan on how to trick someone into clicking on a malicious link or giving information.

Here's how they do it:

They manipulate emotionally.

The goal of attackers usually boils down to obtaining passwords or other sensitive data or coercing their victims into downloading certain files using the most successful phishing emails that appeal to emotions and feelings such as anxiety, irritation and enthusiasm to help, shame, misery, selfishness or greed.

The characteristic features of these psychological manipulations are:

sense of urgency Caught off guard Improved emotional state Credibility of information

Cybercriminals use another way to appear credible. Namely, they pretend to be a customer when contacting a support agent or vice versa; they may camouflage themselves as a customer service representative when contacting a customer.

They disguise themselves as your employees or customers.

A serious disguise trap is that attackers use some basic information about your customer or support agent to build trust: customer details, loyalty programs, exact time of transactions and other data previously collected. Therefore, their statements seem authentic and convincing.

That's when the challenges of identifying and apprehending the cybercriminal appear...