Anyone can start a business on the internet today.
It’s easy. Create a product that solves a problem. Leverage on technology and people. Put it online and sell, sell, sell.
All you need to do is to setup a payment processor that’ll accept credit cards right?
Sure, but here’s the tricky part — we all live defenseless behind our Internet Protocol (IP) addresses where it can be hacked and phished by unseen predators and obtrusive ad purveyors lurking in the clouds of big data.
You don’t believe me?
With the Capital One hack of the personal data of 106 million customers, the Internet just excelled its previous 2018 record of one billion items breached. And it’s only August.
And what happens when a business gets hacked? Shares plunge, confidence shattered and privacy forsaken.
It seems that the more companies and governments spend on data security, the more hacks occur. That’s the very definition of a broken paradigm.
But here’s the thing…
If your business doesn’t accept credit cards in this day and age, you are losing business. But if you can’t accept them because of non-compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), you could lose customers, money, and reputation.
Compliance with PCI, intended to protect consumers, banks and credit card vendors from data theft and fraud, is a must for any business that accepts credit card transactions. Merchants that fail face heavy penalties: fees of $1,000 to $100,000 per month. Worse, you could have your credit card privileges completely revoked.
Complying with the PCI DSS is no simple task, however. Meeting each of the 12 requirements plus sub-requirements—281 objectives in all–can be mind-boggling. And once you’ve reached the “nirvana” of full compliance, you’ll need to remain there as the rules change.
Entrepreneurs must grasp the fact that the world moves on beyond their control — or even comprehension.
In 2014, cyber thieves stole approximately 500 million of Marriot International’s customer information. Contact information, passport numbers, credit cards and travel information were all leaked and this was only discovered in September 2018.
The Friend Finder Network which included adult content websites like Penthouse.com, Cams.com and Stripshow.com was breached in 2016. Hackers stole 20 years of sensitive data.
And every now and then even one of the largest credit bureaus in the U.S., Equifax gets a shock of a lifetime when 143 million consumers’ data were breached, leading to 209,000 consumers credit card data exposed.
Risks to your startup or business will multiply not just daily, but at every moment.
Trust is in crisis around the world. The general population’s trust in business, government, NGOs, and media — has declined broadly, a phenomenon not reported since Edelman began tracking trust since 2012.
With the fall of trust, the majority of people now lack full belief in giving their information, credit card details and other personal preferences to another party.
As long as people are distrustful of each other (which they have been since all these breaches keep happening), businesses are going to suffer even more.
In this climate, people’s societal and economic concerns turn into fears, spurring the rise of support for merchants that adopt strong encryption technology and higher levels of security.
To rebuild trust and restore faith in the system, entrepreneurs must step outside of their traditional roles and work toward a new, more integrated operating model that puts people — and the addressing of their fears — at the center of everything they do.
It looms as probably the most important question in the world related to technology and future growth of a company. How do you go about monitoring the risks to your business online to track and mitigate them?
The question is: Where do you spend a ton of your time looking at prevention instead of a cure?
