What Do I Need To Operate Online?

As a business, you can’t simply set up shop online. Various procedures and regulations ensure that there are certain requirements that must be met to operate legally. Even if this wasn’t the case, some things are just a good idea. When you take security into account, the average customer is arguably more likely to go somewhere invested in safety and procedure.

As such, here are a few areas for you to consider, such as ISO 27001, general protection with cyber security and PCI DSS – all of which are available from the likes of NCC Group. If you don’t know what any of these are, read on to see how they could improve your business.

PCI DSS

To put it simply: if you want to take money from cards online you need PCI DSS. This stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and is a legal requirement. As the name suggests, it’s a standard of security that means you can be trusted to take secure data.

This is crucial with cards, as they’re often a target for data thieves. This is why, for instance, we use the likes of “https//” when dealing with such data. The “s” stands for secure and results in a secure communication, adapting to a more unique protocol language between the customer and you – as opposed to the standard Hypertext Transfer Protocol or HTTP.

ISO 27001

Another standard that isn’t legally required, yet highly recommended, is ISO 27001. This certificate helps you maintain data and security. The standard is often recognised across the industry so taking the effort to obtain it will provide a useful tool to demonstrate your security and trustworthiness to other people.

Protection

Finally, while certificates are one thing, it is another to have the actual protection available. This is where the real investments are arguably made.

Here you want to look at protection in a variety of forms. Anti-viral software is good against viruses but there are other areas more concerning of businesses, such as DDoS and other directed attacks onto your server. For this, you want specialised cyber security to counter these threats.

Likewise, don’t forget to test your own systems. Knowing what can and cannot happen will highlight any weaknesses; giving you time to fix them before anyone else manages to exploit them.

Regular testing is recommended, as it helps further improve your systems and keeps you up to date with the latest threats. It also ensures that everything is working smoothly which is never a bad thing given the sensitive data that is often at stake.