The FTC Safeguards Rule mandates that dealerships must “develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive information security program.” The Rule illustrates the FTC’s commitment to compelling businesses to establish an effective cyber defense to protect consumer information. However, many dealerships are simply concentrating their compliance efforts on isolated measures that alone fall short of constituting a … Read more
Safeguarding consumer information has become paramount. With the rise of government data security regulations and the increasing incidence and severity of cybercrime, businesses are scrambling to improve their cyber defenses. An essential part of a comprehensive information security program is data encryption. However, the effectiveness of data encryption hinges on a factor often overlooked – … 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
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
Many dealerships are under the impression that simply having a firewall and antivirus software deployed is a solid cyber defense – they’re incorrect. Cybercrime is now big, big business and it’s rare that the cybercriminal is ever caught and prosecuted. As a result, cybercrime has attracted highly sophisticated and well-funded criminals into this lucrative industry. … Read more
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is the process of identifying users by validating two or more “factors” that are unique to a user. Some of the different factors that are most often used in the authentication process include: Something you know (such as a password or PIN) Something you have (like a code sent to your smartphone) … Read more
The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) passed on November 3, 2020. This new law amends the existing California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and it significantly strengthens this legislation. One addition brought about by passage of the CPRA is the creation of a new government agency called the California Privacy Protection Agency which is “vested with … Read more
CCPA is a California state law intended to enhance the privacy rights and consumer protection for its residence. A key aspect of the CCPA is that businesses take “reasonable measures” to secure consumers’ personal and identifiable information (PII) – such as names, addresses, social security numbers, credit card numbers, credit scores, and bank account numbers. … Read more
Coronavirus has heightened our need to rethink and retool the way we operate our businesses. The reality is that things are very different – and they are unlikely to ever return to the way they were in the past. We can either do something about our new reality or we can stick our heads in … Read more