How Expertise Keeps Your Data and Business Safe
Welcome back. On Tuesday, we continued our discussion on data security. In a recent post, I also recapped a few of the serious data security breaches suffered by well-known companies already this year. And they weren’t all insidious, high-tech cyber crimes. (Remember the business envelope with the too-large, too-revealing window?)
You might also recall that I suggested an excellent way to protect your business from these potential disasters. In short, I recommended you entrust your data security to savvy partners like Superior and Digital Data Centers (DDC). By doing so, you ensure that your invoices, statements and other account records remain behind secure barriers throughout handling. Thus your data and the documents generated to carry it reach their intended destination—and only their intended destinations—safely.
Extra Security in Transferring Data
To appreciate what an extremely competent partner can bring to the relationship, you first need to realize that data doesn’t just “sit there.” Many locations record and input initial data: a sales floor, an online portal, a customer service function, and many others. Next, that data travels to other appropriate pods for further processing. Most businesses follow that map, and cyber thieves know the route.
Hackers can attack vulnerable data at almost any point during this progression without adequate safeguards. An SSAE 18-certified data center (like DDC) provides very advanced data-handling architecture. The structure has been designed, tested and is constantly monitored for ultra-secure performance. It “cradles” the date from the moment it is received until it is presented to the customer electronically or in print.
Digital Data Centers use eLink to accept data through T1, VPN or SFTP input. Then its proprietary eSecure process takes over. First it encrypts all data. Then it adds security throughout the document production process. A sophisticated system of bar coding ensures the integrity of documents created from the data. It creates (and automates) “matching” checkpoints for data accuracy and document tracking.
Further, Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) automatically records key details of each piece as it is processed. That ensures an accurate record of exactly when each piece was sent, electronically or by mail, to the recipient.
Critical Security in the Distribution of Data
Data, often in the form of a statement or invoice, goes to a customer one of two ways. Either it is printed and mailed through the postal system, or it is sent electronically. (From research we presented in a recent post, the great majority of consumers prefer having a choice of mailed or emailed documents. So the best answer is “both.”)
The need for data and document security at this stage is obvious. Thus, DDC is built to provide maximum protection for both printed and electronic deliveries.
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Automated Postal Processing
The basic principle for printed documents is that the longer control is maintained, the better the document security. As a PAVE and CASS/MASS certified data center, DDC is authorized to work seamlessly with the USPS. That enables print sorting and mailing operations that add security and save money. For mailings of more than 500 pieces:
- All document insertion and envelope sealing takes place in a secured facility.
- Mail is pre-sorted into trays, sleeved and banded.
- It is sent to the post office distribution center where it enters the general mail cycle for the first time.
- Accepted as USPS Bulk Mail, it is then flown or trucked to its final destination.
Mailings of fewer than 500 pieces receive the same in-facility insertion and sealing, but are then sent to an approved and certified postal pre-sort company. This enables these smaller mailings to benefit from security and savings similar to larger ones.
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Electronic Mailing/eMail Operation
DDC is equipped to handle electronic deliveries securely and efficiently in two ways. The account holder receives the information one of two ways:
- An electronic notification that invoices are ready to view through a secure website portal. The customer authenticates his or her identity, and can then view, print, download and pay any invoices.
- An email message with an attached PDF containing an embedded security object. With eSecure, only the intended recipient providing the correct answer to a challenge question can open the PDF.
All email deliveries are carefully monitored through real-time reports of the day and time they were sent. Through eVerify, the outbound address contains a security object. This relays information about when the message was first opened, and other details that might be helpful if security issues arise.
Eliminate Data Insecurity with a Quick Call or Click
I hope by now you’ve gotten the message that you can’t ensure the integrity of your data simply by “being careful.” It takes professional partners like SBS and Digital Data Centers. We have been helping businesses thrive for nearly 100 years. We know the role that data and document security can play in achieving that goal.
Trust our ISO certification which, frankly, isn’t easy to achieve. And we don’t just look good “technically.” Our customers’ feedback has earned us two consecutive “Best of Print and Digital” awards.
Contact Superior today for a free data security audit. I’d normally add “what have you got to lose?” But hopefully, after reading my last few posts, you know the answer to that.
