We often see marketing departments among the least involved with a company’s efforts for cybersecurity. They are often not introduced to stricter measures before something happens. By then, it might be too late. Even if your company uses a secure connection, hackers can creep into the network. You may need to bolster your Spectrum Gold package with added layers of Cyber Security . As the marketing department has a lot of sensitive information for a company’s external clients, they are very prone to cyber-attacks.
Marketers should be prepared well in advance to handle any attacks and stay careful. Data leaks can cost a lot if they happen, and preventive measures are really important for marketers. Here are a few things that marketing professionals should know about cybersecurity the managed security service provider.
A Proactive Approach
Marketers need to be more involved than all other departments if there is a cyberattack. They are the forerunners of your company’s PR and have to engage directly with many clients and stakeholders. If and when this happens, the response team should have a marketing and PR person on it right away. Before all that even happens, there needs to be a proactive Cyber Security Company approach as well. Mitigation should never precede prevention in any case.
Marketers should learn more about
Data that the company handles and has to safeguard.
Where and how the data is stored.
An estimated amount of how much the data can be worth.
Awareness about data breaches and how they can occur.
This demands a highly involved marketing department that understands what they are dealing with. They may not be as technically engaged in setting up security firmware and firewalls. Therefore, they can familiarize themselves with knowledge about such attacks if they ever happen.
What You Need to Know
Cybercrime techniques keep evolving, and there are many different ways a hacker can get into your system. Marketing professionals should think about cybersecurity before they even design a campaign. As consumers become more aware of their own security, they may see your campaign as a risk. Any messages or emails that you send out can be confused with a phishing link. So, for marketers, staying safe is important but looking safe for others is also essential. If the overall image of your campaign threatens your consumers, they will never click on your CTAs.
Any hacker that wants to get into your system will not do it instantly. Hacking is like a well-planned heist, and the hacker will take their time. There are some hurdles they need to overcome, and you can stop them at any point in time. Here is what you should know:
The hacker will begin with learning about you and your business. In this time, they will only be a silent sitter and observe your employees to find the easiest target.
Then, they will make a move towards you and try to gain entry into your system. They can do so masking malware as a software download and find a loophole to bypass your firewalls.
If they are inside your system, they will try to find a weak password and gain access to as much information as they can ASAP.
After getting sensitive information at hand, they will extract themselves from your system without leaving a trace.
They could also hold the information ransom, extorting money for you in exchange for releasing it unharmed and uncorrupted.
How to Stay Cautious
Marketing professionals need to be cautious every time they are working with an external party. IT professionals should supervise any data transfers with foreign vendors. Moreover, all departments should mask themselves on the internet using a VPN service. Not all VPNs work, and marketing departments should use a secure premium package.
Laws about Cybersecurity
It is very important for international marketers to know about the current laws and standards governing cybersecurity and data management. Many countries have strict laws when it comes to customer data and how you use it. The onus is on you to keep your customers’ data safe and secure. If there is a data leak and it becomes common knowledge, you could be bombarded with lawsuits and reputational damage. If the marketing department has lax security, the whole company is at risk. They are liable for any data losses a customer endures under their watch.
Apart from the financial issues, a security breach can make you look far less trustworthy. Your customers will lose much of the trust they had in you. Moreover, it will get you extremely bad press and it could prove very hard to recover from it. The tarnished image might be a secondary consequence, but it will hurt you more than anything else.
