Your donors are the lifeblood of your organization. Without backing from your funders, you may lack the monetary resources to meet your operational expenses or achieve your mission statement goals. As such, you must take every precaution to secure their data. Especially nowadays, when cybersecurity attacks are rising and data leaks are growing costlier. In addition, insider threats are rising too.
Repay the trust your funders have placed in you by taking proactive steps to protect their confidential information. Start by using an excellent nonprofit websites creation tool that offers beautiful, intuitive, and modern web design features, and world-class AWS cloud reliability and security.
Here are Some Other Ways You Can Protect Your Donor Data:
1. Analyze Your Network
Start by analyzing your network. Look for weaknesses that a hacker may leverage to attack your donor’s private information. Please also look at your organization’s culture and address any potential problems that may result in data loss.
2. Configure Access
Like many nonprofits, you probably use Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) tools to improve your workflow and optimize your relationships with your constituents. Now is the time to switch to a more secure CRM system that allows you to configure access on a need-to-know basis. Using this system, you can prevent staff and volunteers from seeing sensitive information and mitigate the risk of insider threats.
3. Use Secure Software
Ensure that the software you use prioritizes safety. For example, the top donor software program by Sumac uses encryption protocols for secure data transfer and storage. The added protection can prevent hackers from reading important donor information.
4. Avoid Physical Copies
Avoid making physical copies of donor information. Copies can be easily misplaced or stolen by malicious parties. Instead of printing out data, use secure CRM software to manage donor details.
5. Download Anti-malware Software
Download anti-malware software on your company systems to shield your devices from malicious software designed to steal confidential information. Anti-malware tools can stop privacy-invading malware such as spyware, Trojans, and keyloggers.
You can hire a cybersecurity expert to check your systems for security flaws. After an audit, an IT professional can improve your system security.
6. Protect Your Endpoints
In the age of remote working, employees are a significant source of security breaches. Online criminals are manipulating endpoints such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops to attack companies. Ensure that your staff only uses company computers and devices to access your networks.
However, like many nonprofits on tight budgets, you may have a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy to cut costs. In this case, please install endpoint protection software on any device authorized to access your nonprofit’s networks.
7. Set Complex Passwords
Your nonprofit must require its staff to set complex passwords. Long and sophisticated passwords are harder for hackers to crack. Passwords should be at least 12 characters long and carry upper case letters, lower case letters, upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.
8. Invest in Anti-Phishing Training
Phishing attacks are fake emails, text messages, and websites that hackers use to steal usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information. With stolen login credentials, hackers could break into your network and steal confidential data.
Invest in anti-phishing training to get your employees ready for a phishing attack. By spotting and reporting fake emails, your staff can shield your organization from scams.
When your backers give money to your nonprofit, they assume that their sensitive information will not be seen by bad actors. Reward their trust by protecting their privacy.
Leave a comment