Digital Dealer - January 2020 - 15

5 Steps to Protect Your Dealership's Reputation
Ask a qualified IT provider for
a risk assessment. Even if you
have IT staff, it's critical to bring
in an outside party occasionally
for testing and to provide
objective assessments and
recommendations.

Be prepared to make upgrades
in software, hardware, and
network security equipment.

Consider enrolling your
employees in security
awareness training. It's very
inexpensive compared to the
cost of a data breach, which can
run into the millions. Security
awareness training has been
proven to reduce the threat of
a data breach up to 98 percent.
This is critical as 91 percent of
all data breaches are initiated
with phishing attacks (clever
emails designed to lure your
employees to click on a link or
download an infected file).

Take preventive measures
by using strong and unique
passwords for every website,
application, and system.

Implement two-factor
authentication for access to
bank accounts and require
verbal authorization for all wire
transfers.

" Fact is, all the work you do on a daily basis to maintain your
reputation hangs by a thread and could be undone in a single fell
swoop with the discovery of a data breach.
"
percent year over year from Q4 2013 to Q4
2014. Could your dealership withstand a
46 percent drop in revenue? If you suffer a
data breach, that percentage could be even
larger.
According to Total Compliance, 84
percent of consumers said they would not
purchase another vehicle at a dealership if
their personal data had been compromised.
This aligns with a recent survey done in
Britain where 86 percent of consumers
stated they were "not at all likely" or "not
very likely" to do business with an organization that had suffered a data breach

January 2020

involving their credit or debit card details.
If breached, it's certainly possible to recover and repair your reputation, but how
long will it take? Replacing one dealer with
another isn't a big issue for consumers. If
your reputation is poor, they will simply
choose to visit another dealership.
Fact is, all the work you do on a daily basis to maintain your reputation hangs by a
thread and could be undone in a single fell
swoop with the discovery of a data breach.

If You Value Your Reputation...
You must value cybersecurity. Too often

dealers view investment in their IT infrastructure as an expense to be controlled,
instead of as an investment to protect
their reputations and increase their competitive advantage.
As we head into 2020 and the threat of
cyberattacks continues to rise, it might
be time to ask what your dealership's
reputation is worth. Are you managing
that reputation and mitigating risks on
all fronts?
For more articles on reputation management,
visit: digitaldealer.com/trending-auto-news/

[ d i g i t a l d e a l e r. c o m ]

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Digital Dealer - January 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - January 2020
