While the digital marketing landscape affords marketers a wealth of opportunities to reach their intended audience, it also serves to attract unscrupulous individuals — the cybercriminal. You may also call them hackers, identity thieves, or other less savory names, but one thing about them will always remain true — they will continually strive to gain unauthorized access to your private accounts. And that’s why for a professional in the digital marketing industry, cybersecurity should be of the utmost importance.
Data Breaches and the Digital Marketing Industry
Professionals in the digital marketing industry utilize a number of different strategies to attract, maintain, and grow a customer base for the brands they work for. That means a lot of data and a lot of online accounts. And that means the potential for some pretty large data breaches.
Should a cybercriminal gain access to even one private account, the potential for a massive loss of data can be exponential. Not only can customer data be compromised, since many brands store consumer data in a marketing database, but private and sensitive company information can be stolen and subsequently used for nefarious purposes.
Companies of all sizes in all industries have been told by both cybersecurity experts and the United States government to ensure that they are adequately prepared to defend their networks, systems, and data from cyberthreats. But even if a company is lax in ensuring proper cybersecurity protocols are followed, digital marketers can still do their part to keep consumer and company data safe.
How the Digital Marketing Industry Can Practice Strong Cybersecurity
Companies can employ many methods to erect a strong cybersecurity defense, such as firewalls, anti-malware software, and threat monitoring. But ultimately, it is still up to each individual employed at a company, whether in-office or working remotely, to maintain their own levels of strong cybersecurity. That’s because even the mightiest of defenses can be brought down by a single employee mistake due to a lack of proper cybersecurity knowledge.
In fact, employee negligence is responsible for over 90% of all data breaches. It could simply be something as simple as using a weak password, falling victim to a phishing email, or accidentally downloading malware. Regardless, many data breaches could easily be avoided if individuals followed a few common-sense cybersecurity rules.
Keep Your Website Secure
A company website can easily fall victim to cyberattacks if not properly maintained and protected. And if a cybercriminal manages to breach one part of a website, it is usually just a matter of moments before they are able to gain access to the remainder of the site and steal a wealth of information. The data they acquire can be anything from consumer credit card information to website data and much more.
Keep websites protected with IGA or 2FA. Additionally, utilize a web application firewall to detect and prevent many types of cyber threats.
Protect Social Media Accounts
Social media, of course, plays a very large role in digital marketing. And unfortunately, social media platforms don’t always have the best cybersecurity to protect private accounts. To help add an extra level of cybersecurity to social media accounts, digital marketing professionals should utilize a strong, unique password for each account.
Protecting Email Accounts
Despite many obvious red flags, a study revealed that over 95% of employees are still unable to successfully spot a phishing email. Each year, not only do phishing attacks increase, but they also become more sophisticated. Digital marketing experts must be trained in the identification and detection of a phishing attack so that a potential data breach can be avoided.
Additionally, email accounts must also be protected with strong, unique passwords. Account holders must also be careful to never click on a link or download an attachment provided from an untrusted source.
The Importance of Strong Passwords for Cybersecurity
As you may have realized, the use of strong, unique passwords plays a central theme in practicing good cybersecurity. That’s because, while there are many different things that play a role in a strong cybersecurity program, unique passwords are often the first line of defense against cybercriminals. And since digital marketing experts work with a multitude of different accounts, proper password protocol is especially important.
According to Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report, poor password security contributes to 81% of all data breaches. And, many employees still insist on using the same weak password for multiple accounts. That’s because, understandably, people just don’t like having to keep track of a different password for each account. But that’s also exactly what cybercriminals rely on. And when a cybercriminal manages to acquire the password for one account, they’ll also manage to access all your other private accounts as well.
But digital marketing experts can solve this problem by using a password manager like TeamPassword. A password manager creates a strong, unique password for each private account and stores them in a secure location only accessed by a single password. That makes it easy for digital marketers to maintain a strong password for each account without having to remember them all or write them down (another cybersecurity no-no), subsequently keeping all their accounts better protected from cybercriminals.
Whether you’re working exclusively for one brand, providing digital marketing services for several companies, or working as part of a team, you’ll greatly benefit from a professional password manager and stronger cybersecurity. Protect your team and your private accounts today by signing up for a TeamPassword trial free for 14-days.
