Establishing Strong Policies and Practices: Never skip on security

 


Gift cards incentivize customers to engage in business with any company. Gift cards can be purchased in bulk, cannot be tracked, can be easily sold online, and can be exchanged just like cash. A business implementing a gift card purchase system often focuses on a quick and simple customer experience that will boost sales; however, companies often postpone implementing secure policies and practices in a last-minute gift card campaign designed to make a quick buck (Malteseva, 2023). A low dedication to security when creating gift card promotions makes gift cards a prime target for hackers. On November 4, 2022, to February 27, 2023, Nordik Spa in Ontario, Canada, suffered a significant data breach in their gift card payment system that distributed customer credit card numbers and personal information to a third party that resulted in numerous unauthorized charges to customer credit cards (Shebahkeget, 2023). Gift cards provide a lucrative attack point for hackers. When offering gift cards, businesses should immediately implement secure policies and practices that include encrypting credit card data. Smaller companies often allow phone payments to a representative and fail to protect customer information during the payment process. Strong policies and best practices regarding social engineering and phishing attacks should exist to guide employees to make informed choices when interacting with customer data. While the customer experience and ease of use should be a focal point for any business, secure practices often dictate a company’s business reputation. Businesses must implement safe and secure practices without cutting corners in last-minute gift card campaigns. 


References

Arctic Wolf. (2023, May 8). Cyber attacks of April 2023. Arctic Wolf. https://arcticwolf.com/resources/blog/top-cyber-attacks-of-april-2023/

Malteseva, I. (2023, February 6). Why do scammers want gift cards? (avoid gift card scams). Aura. https://www.aura.com/learn/why-do-scammers-want-gift-cards#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Federal%20Trade,use%20it%20however%20they%20want.

Shebahkeget, O. (2023, April 6). Customers of winnipeg’s thermea spa alarmed after notification of significant Data Breach | CBC News. CBCnews. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/thermea-spa-data-breach-winnipeg-1.6803321

Chargeback Gurus. (2020). TIPS: Gift Card Fraud Prevention [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp4rGaQhuZI&t=186s

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