Thanks to the digital age, people's behavior has been changing over the years. As a result, retail companies are focusing on the digital consumer journey and experience.
It is precisely from this need that the concept of omnichannel is born. In this way, the sector aims to serve and improve people's experience in various communication channels, meeting their desires.
However, with these innovations come scams, cyberattacks, and numerous digital risks, being a great danger for these organizations.
The threats attack the valuable relationship between companies and their consumers, something that often takes years to build and, for a small slip, can put everything at risk.
Omnichannel focuses on strengthening contacts across all communication channels, whether physical or digital. Therefore, it is essential that organizations pay attention to cybersecurity so that this relationship is free of dangers.
What is omnichannel strategy in awareness?
To talk about how important cybersecurity is for omnichannel, let's first contextualize what this strategy is all about.
It is the integration of different sales channels, where they are combined to offer a positive experience for consumers.
In this way, the technique unites specific characteristics of each communication channel to provide a buying journey:
· Fluid;
· Interactive;
· Effective;
· Practice.
Omnichannel strategies reduce online and offline barriers and bring people closer to the brand, transforming this relationship into something closer for both parties.
However, these actions draw the attention of criminals, who use these numerous communication channels to apply their scams and steal confidential information.
Therefore, it is essential for organizations to invest in omnichannel strategies for cybersecurity. Which is nothing more than a comprehensive and integrated plan to protect systems, data and information across all channels of communication and digital interaction.
This approach recognizes that organizations and all the people who work in them are interacting in a variety of digital environments, such as websites, mobile apps, social media, email, and instant messaging.
In this way, an omnichannel strategy for cybersecurity aims to ensure that security is maintained at all these touchpoints, protecting against various cyber threats, such as phishing, malware, and social engineering attacks.
What are the risks of an omnichannel strategy?
Now that we understand a little bit about what a cybersecurity strategy looks like for organizations that use omnichannel, let's present some risks that this multichannel approach offers.
Increased attacks
The Omnichannel strategy allows organizations to communicate with their consumers in various communication channels. This way, a customer can start contact on the website and end it on a messaging app.
As a result, the organization is more exposed to entry points for potential cyber threats. This is precisely due to the variety of communication channels used, such as email, social networks, and instant messaging.
This is because criminals will act precisely on all channels and wait for their victims to click on links or install malicious software so that they have access to sensitive information.
Lack of control over channels
With interaction across multiple channels, organizations can face issues maintaining control of all these communication points. After all, there are a number of employees who do not always have the maturity to deal with these interactions.
People often do not understand the risk that a message can contain for the organization and, because they do not know how to identify or pay attention to security issues, they can generate risks for the organization.
This can result in gaps in security, especially if one of the channels is compromised by cyber threats such as phishing or malware.
Difficulty in implementing security measures
Managing security across multiple communication channels is not such an easy task, firewalls that monitor incoming and outgoing network traffic and block threats may not be enough to protect organizations.
And with that, require the organization to implement additional security measures, such as multifactor authentication, data encryption, and constant monitoring.
However, a lack of coordination between different systems can lead to security breaches.
Bringing several loopholes and allowing criminals to access the sensitive information of organizations and commit their crimes.
Risk of Fraud and Phishing
Phishing is usually one of the most used attacks by criminals, last year Brazil had 134 million phishing attempts, which represented an increase of 436% compared to the years 2021 and 2022.
The additional communication channels provided by an omnichannel strategy are targeted and exploited by cybercriminals to carry out phishing and social engineering attacks.
Therefore, it is important that people know how to recognize these attacks, so as not to become victims and put the organization's security at risk, which can result in obtaining confidential information or installing malware on systems.
Why create cybersecurity strategies?
As we can see throughout this text, the lack of cybersecurity in an omnichannel strategy can pose serious risks for organizations.
This is because security breaches can open loopholes that are exploited by criminals to steal information and thus put the security of customer data at risk.
In this way, instead of getting closer and closer to people, the company may have problems with its reputation and lose strength in the market.
Therefore, to mitigate risks, it is necessary to adopt an approach that ensures digital security across all communication channels. This includes implementing security measures such as data encryption, a firewall, threat detection, and training.
Additionally, it is important to continuously monitor the security of omnichannel channels and be prepared to respond quickly to potential security incidents. Only in this way can you mitigate risks and protect your organization.
PhishX in the omnichannel cybersecurity strategy
Just as communication between consumers and companies is omnichannel, cybersecurity also needs to keep up with this strategy.
With PhishX's ecosystem, it is possible to implement omnichannel strategies for awareness programs. In this way, organizations are able to reach a diverse audience and effectively engage them on cybersecurity issues.
PhishX allows the integration of several communication channels, such as:
· Email;
· Social media;
· Instant messaging;
· Webinars.
All this, to offer a unified experience for people, allowing awareness messages to be delivered in a consistent and accessible way across different platforms.
In this way, important announcements are triggered in real time, ensuring that messages reach people regardless of the channel chosen.
The big problem for companies that use omnichannel strategies is the lack of awareness among people. This is because they deal with several access points and if they don't know how to recognize attacks, they can put data security at risk.
Therefore, phishing training and simulations are essential to educate people and make them able to mitigate these threats. After all, the attacks are directed at them, so they need to know how to defend themselves.
In addition to the entire omnichannel structure, our platform has several materials on cybersecurity, with booklets on malware attacks, videos on online security, and interactive quizzes on various digital security topics.
With PhishX it is also possible to test phishing simulations, so that people understand in practice how these attacks work. This is a great way to test the maturity of the teams and know the risks faced by the organization.
Through our platform, it is possible to collect and analyze data in real time on communication channels and thus evaluate the effectiveness of awareness campaigns.
In this way, it is possible to make adjustments as needed and ensure that omnichannel strategies are continuously optimized to achieve the best results.
Omnichannel strategies for awareness programs are key to ensuring that cybersecurity and privacy messages reach as many people as possible and have a positive impact.
By integrating multiple communication channels, promoting people to interact, and analyzing data seamlessly, organizations can maximize the reach and effectiveness of their awareness initiatives.
Not only do these strategies allow organizations to communicate more effectively with their teams, but they also foster a culture of cybersecurity and online privacy.
This empowers people to know how to protect themselves against digital threats in all aspects of their online lives. In this way, they ensure the security of your data and the institution.
PhishX can help your organization create an omnichannel cybersecurity strategy to reduce the risks of security breaches and protect your company's reputation and assets from cyber threats.
