When selling online, no matter how big or small your business, there are always risks. There are huge amounts of important data shared, plus, you are putting your trust in 3rd parties to manage products and data properly. The risks are almost endless, so it can seem like a monumental challenge to protect both data, brand security, and products.
However, there are tools available to help you protect your business and its interests. One of these is web risk monitoring. Let’s take a look at what web risk monitoring is, how it can help your business, and why it is so important. If you run any kind of online business, this info could come in very handy indeed.
Web Risk Monitoring
Web risk monitoring is an all-encompassing security feature that many businesses use. It provides a security standard for a wide variety of your online security needs. The problem is, if you do not properly monitor online sales, card data, and other potential threats, you could end up paying substantial fines or even losing your business. These all-in-one platforms can help protect your business and all its online activities.
What Does it Look For
As mentioned, web risk monitoring can protect, monitor, and manage all sorts of online threats. These things are all key to protecting your business and 3rd parties. Let’s take a look at a few of them in greater detail.
- Protecting Card Data
If you haven’t heard of it before, you need to understand what PCI compliance is. PCI DSS stands for the payment card industry data security standard. PCI compliance then, is the monitoring of all companies who hold, share, use, or transmit customer card information. Companies must be PCI compliant to ensure a safe transaction environment for all cardholder details.
This is closely monitored, with any failures to be PCI compliant resulting in industry punishments or fines. Web risk monitoring can help ensure that all your transactions and systems are PCI compliant so that you never find yourself investigated by the PCI DSS.
- No Illegal Products
Another issue many online payment companies have is making sure all of your merchants are only selling legal products. If multiple merchants are using your platforms or card services, you don’t want any illegal activities taking place. This could ruin brand image for major card companies, or lead to criminal investigations.
Monitoring card brand requirements and keeping track of all your merchant’s transactions is a monumental task. In fact, as your business grows, it will likely become impossible to manually manage this task as it would simply take too many hours. Web risk monitoring services can manage this for you, saving time, money, and any risk of human error.
- Malware Searches
Another major online threat is viruses. Viruses, like malware, for example, can completely cripple merchants, supply chains, and more. Spyware, too, can be installed onto your merchant’s websites meaning, once again, that customer card details could be exposed. Web monitoring services can provide scans of all your merchant’s sites, ensuring there are no viruses affecting them, your customers, or your data.
- Merchant Checks
You also need to make sure you have a complete view of your merchants, how they operate, and who they do business with. Web risk monitoring can regularly check your merchant’s sites, their terms of service, and any sites they communicate with, all helping to provide a rounded view of how safe and trustworthy the merchants you choose to work with are.
- Custom Monitoring Services
There are plenty of other things web risk monitoring can look for. For example, you may be worried about counterfeit merchandise being sold by a particular merchant. Once you tell the system what it is you want it to look for, it can report on these things regularly, too.
How Does it Work?
There are a variety of methods built into these web monitoring services all designed to do all of the tasks above with minimal human input. Running constant security checks, card monitoring, data scanning, and more. All of these tasks are running 24/7 in the cloud, so they do not affect any of your own company’s computer power. These tasks are aided by automation. Once the system knows what to look for, it is self-sufficient, carrying on all the scans and data tasks automatically, providing regular reports and alerts.
Web risk monitoring helps you be sure that your merchants are performing only legal tasks while sticking to all the requirements laid out to them. It helps you operate with peace of mind and a full picture of 3rd party activity and your own security.