The ever-increasing cybersecurity threat – and the evolving tactics of the cybercriminal – demand that an effective cyber defense is regularly accessed and tweaked to appropriately protect consumer data. This is why the FTC Safeguards Rule requires that dealerships perform an annual risk assessment. This assessment must be performed by a “qualified individual” and must … Read more
You can’t run a dealership without the Internet. However – as the cybersecurity threat facing dealers continues to escalate – allowing unrestricted employee web browsing presents some very significant business risks. Cybersecurity Risks: Malware and Phishing Attacks: Unrestricted web browsing increases the likelihood of employees stumbling upon malicious websites or falling victim to phishing … Read more
Data protection is a paramount concern for every dealership – or least it should be. Loss or corruption of critical information will lead to severe consequences, ranging from financial losses to reputational damage. This is why dealerships need a robust and easy to use backup solution like Spanning Backup. Spanning Backup is a cloud-to-cloud backup … Read more
Does your dealership have an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution implemented? If you do not, then you’re most likely not in compliance with the new FTC Safeguards Rule. And, even worse than non-compliance, is the fact that not having a IAM solution in place is a major cybersecurity vulnerability. So, what is IAM? Azure … Read more
Dealerships face challenges when it comes to securely receiving customer files. Often, employees ask customers to send files via text, email, or other unsecured methods. This will violate the new FTC Safeguards Rule’s regulations regarding the secure transfer, storage, and restricted access of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). However, there’s an easy solution to this problem … Read more
Auto dealers – like many other businesses – are facing a serious problem when it comes to cybersecurity. They’re drowning in “security debt,” which means they have a multitude of unaddressed technical vulnerabilities that need to be addressed to protect their dealership from a cyberattack. These unaddressed security vulnerabilities include things like unpatched software, unmanaged … Read more
There’s some bad information floating around regarding the FTC Safeguards Rule, its intent, and cybersecurity best practice. This misleading information is related to the FTC’s use of the word “qualified.” More precisely, the FTC’s use of the term “qualified individual” and “qualified personnel.” The claim that is spreading is that because the FTC doesn’t specifically … Read more
Everyone seems to be talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT. This technology – along with other generative AI models – present us with a wide range of potential benefits and some very serious potential concerns. In this blog, we look at how AI can be used by cybercriminals to steal from your dealership, destroy … Read more
As the incidence, severity, and sophistication of today’s cyber threats continues to grow, the appropriate use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) is becoming increasingly important. Add to this that new government regulations – like the FTC Safeguards Rule – now requires that businesses implement MFA. The result is a lot of confusion, inefficiency, and quite frankly … Read more