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Study finds many contact centres require customers to read sensitive data aloud

Thursday 2 November 2017 10:11 CET | News

A large number of contact centres rely on risky practices for customer interaction, data collection and fraud prevention, according to a survey of contact centre agents conducted by Semafone.

As a result, this exposes organisations to inside and outside security threats, and puts sensitive customer information at risk. Furthermore, contact centres still use data collection and customer interaction practices that create opportunities for agent fraud and leave data vulnerable to a breach.

Key survey findings:

  • 72% of agents who collect credit/debit card information over the phone require customers to read numbers aloud, despite the readily available technologies that secure voice transactions

  • 30% reported that they have access to payment card information even when not on the phone with customers.

Agents are experiencing and witnessing breach attempts from both insiders and outsiders, yet many do nothing to mitigate the risks.

  • 7% of agents admitted that someone inside their organisation has asked them to access or share customers’ payment card information or other sensitive data

  • 4% said the same about someone outside their organisation

  • 9% said they personally know someone who has unlawfully accessed or shared customers’ payment card information

  • 42% of those approached said they did not report the situation to either management or the authorities

These percentages may seem small, but just one successful breach attempt could cost an organisation an average of GBP 2.5 million, according to IBM’s 2017 Cost of a Data Breach Study.


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Keywords: Semafone, data breaches, call centers, cyber risk, sensitive data, PCI DSS, fraud prevention, study
Categories: Fraud & Financial Crime
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Countries: World
This article is part of category

Fraud & Financial Crime






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