Your business’s data is one of its most precious assets, and as such should be treated with the utmost care. Security breaches are becoming increasingly common – over 1billion pieces of Personally Identifiable Information were leaked in 2014 – and companies who fail to adequately protect themselves from this type of threat could suffer in more ways than might first be expected.
According to a recent survey conducted by LogRhythm, when asked whether knowledge of a previous data breach suffered by an organisation would affect their doing business with them, 28% of respondents said they would not do business with them at all and 25% would limit the amount of personal information they share with them.
This data indicates that poor data security could prove to be a barrier to conversion whatever your business, and could therefore have a significant impact on your bottom line.
The way in which a business manages their data security and how they react should a data breach occur could therefore impact its future success. It makes sense then, that good data security can be translated into business revenue when highlighted as a unique selling point.
Data Security as an Asset
As mentioned previously, data management and security are fast becoming strategic imperatives for any organisation.
As businesses, their partners and their customers continue to transfer vast amounts of valuable data online, organisations that invest significantly in data protection and secure data transfer should start to become positively differentiated in the marketplace.
This will only be possible, however, if these investments are not only made public, but actively emphasised by the organisations that make them.
Publicising Data Security
In order to fully benefit from robust data security (in financial terms), any investments in enhanced security measures should be combined with efforts to publicise data practices and to be as transparent about these practices as possible. This means explaining in clear, everyday language how data will be collected, used, stored and transferred.
Prominently displaying any standards of excellence earned from regulatory organisations such as PCI-DSS and Skyhigh Enterprise-Ready will also let your customers know that yours is an organisation to be trusted, invested in, and recommended, so be sure to comply with all relevant industry standards.
Your Business’s Bottom Line
Translating data security into business revenue is all about managing your brand’s reputation as far as data security is concerned. An excellent reputation in this area can, and does, attract business investment, and will encourage customers to share further valuable data with your business in the future.
Even governments are realising the potential of excellent data security practice, so much so that in 2014, Singapore passed a Personal Data Protection Act as a strategic move ‘to strengthen [their] position as a trusted global data hub.’
Remember, it only takes a second to lose a customer’s trust, regardless of who that customer is. As soon as they become aware of any information that makes them uncomfortable, they are likely to vote with their feet and take their business elsewhere.
This post was contributed by Georgina Park on behalf of Maytech, a company with expertise in multi-platform secure file sharing to help businesses across the world send and receive files simply and effectively with secure data transfer.