3 contact center security threats every business must plan for

By now, your entire workforce should be either working remotely or navigating a hybrid solution between working from home (WFH) and safely going to the office. In addition, your contact center might have witnessed some shifts in the composition of its staff. While some organizations have unfortunately experienced a downfall in business due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), others saw the need to hire more personnel to meet rising expectations and demands from customers.

Personnel changes and shifts to agents working remotely can refresh security concerns due to employees using home networks or potentially working from personal devices. In the contact center space, security breaches can seriously damage your business by penetrating valuable customer data. Here is what you should know about them.

1. Unsegmented networks

Many organizations are still operating under unsegmented networks, which can be dangerous when you have a distributed and remote workforce. Networking segmentation means splitting a network into several architectural subnets, each acting as a standalone network so administrators can better regulate traffic flow between (sub)networks.

An unsegmented network is a synonym for bigger security risks, as it represents one single surface vulnerable for attack. Additionally, it is also a platform that contains broader and unspecified privileges for users, meaning everyone is operating under the same terms and conditions.

Segmenting your network will generate higher performance, as there are fewer hosts per subnetwork that consequently minimize local traffic and local failures per subnet will not affect the network as a whole. Additionally, by creating an environment of least privilege and localized control with each subnet, you will guarantee a security improvement.

2. Fragile partnerships

Part of the job of guaranteeing data protection in your contact center is in the hands of your partners. A data breach can still happen when partners do not take security as seriously as you do, damaging reputation and customer loyalty for both parties involved.

When forging new partnerships, make sure to go through security procedures. You can conduct meetings or surveys with your new partners to assess how they treat sensitive data and if their strategies are in line with yours. The secret to a successful partnership is transparent communication from the very first moment and you and your partners should always work together to safeguard the success for both parties.

3. Social engineering

A broader notion of social engineering includes the use of tools and strategies in an attempt to manage social change and regulate societal behavior. When talking about information security, it means actively manipulating individuals into disclosing confidential information that may be used for fraudulent purposes.

The contact center seems to be a particularly vulnerable space for this sort of attack, as it stores an enormous amount of sensitive customer data and serves the main purpose of keeping the customer happy and engaged. With call center fraud on the rise, it’s important to keep your customer support professionals aware of the concept of social engineering and deploy the necessary strategies to prevent it as much as you can.

The contact center is the epicenter for customer interactions within your organization. As such, security breaches must be kept in check as much as possible to maintain customer data safe and ensure continuity of operations in the long run.

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