Computer Security Day

Here is a day to consider protecting sensitive data, whether it's names, addresses, social security numbers, telephone numbers, email addresses, driver's license numbers, passport numbers, financial data, or biometric records! Today's the day to double-check your systems and ensure accurate information management.

It’s Computer Security Day, baby! 

2-factor authentication? Check. Fingerprint and facial recognition? Check. Passwords over 15 characters long with alternating capital and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers? Check!

Your IT team is metaphorically making you double-pull on that yellow tab to ensure you’re strapped in securely. And that's a good thing. Everybody sing, “Thanks, IT team!”

Historically insecure

Why do we have this day now? Well, historically speaking, computers were just secure because nobody really had one, so it wasn’t a big deal. Now that we’re all walking around with tiny computers in our pockets and everyone (even some dogs) knows how to use them, we need to take extra steps to keep the bad guys out of our schtuff. 

Beginning in 1988, National Computer Security Day was born. Just learning the ins and outs of the zeroes and ones, humanity had yet to make computers a common item. Still, hacking and viruses came into existence the second computers did, so a day to celebrate awareness of keeping prying eyes away can’t hurt.

The need for cybersecurity hasn't just gone away as our technology gets more advanced. In August of 2024, Fidelity Investments had a hacker set up 2 accounts and use them to gain access to Social Security numbers, financial information, names, numbers, and addresses for over 77,000 users. There goes a bunch of PII (personally identifiable information) out into the world.

In September 2023, Microsoft AI researchers accidentally exposed 38 terabytes of private data, including company secrets, private keys, passwords, and over 30,000 internal messages. Wild, I know.

In March 2024, American Express experienced a breach in their merchant processor via a point-of-sale attack. Attacks through third-party vendors are a major risk. Every time you allow another system to plug into yours… well, you might want to get tested.

And that's just a few of the recent-ish big ones.

How Smarty® can help you celebrate today

We care immensely about computer security. We understand that when you use an API for something even as simple as address data, you're taking a risk. Handing over sensitive information can feel very nerve-wracking. 

Smarty is committed to being transparent about our security practices and processes in order to provide you with excellent and safe service. 

It's important to note that addresses are not PII by themselves. However, if you pair an address with any other point of PII, the address becomes PII as well. You can learn more about that in our interview with an attorney.

While we toute that Smarty is all about data accuracy, a major benefit to quality address data is how it helps protect you, your organization, and your customers. Computer security and address data security are highly aligned. Here's how they work together:

• Data integrity and accuracy: We help you prevent fraud when you validate and verify addresses using US Address Verification and International Address Verification. Including inaccurate addresses in your database can lead to security risks, like misdelivering sensitive information (think bills, government notices, and financial statements).
• Preventing data breaches: Using a secure cloud API like Smarty’s ensures that you’re protected with the best practices in data handling. You can rest easy knowing that Smarty protects your data with the latest recommended secure cipher suites, and encryption keys, and we encrypt all records in transit and at rest. Your data is safe and secure.
• Fraud prevention: Keep vanity cities out of your databases. Using an Autocomplete that validates at entry prevents fraudulent account creation (we know you don’t really work in The Sea of Tranquility) and ensures that the address provided is legitimate. Reducing the opportunity for the wolves in sheep’s clothing to infiltrate your database with false information is also the best way to ensure market analysis isn’t skewed later. Cha-ching.
• Compliance with privacy regulations: The question was asked, “What specific and legally binding protections do you offer that ensure my data won’t be transferred to any third parties?” Our answer is that your security and your client’s security is our primary concern. In a nutshell, everything we do is encrypted, our services are completely automated, and we don’t require that you share anything other than an address with us. 

Looking for some great tips on keeping your address data secure? Ok, fine, you convinced me.

1. Only connect to cloud APIs using HTTPS connections to get the best industry-grade encryption possible.
2. When you send out API requests, DO NOT include names or other PII.
3. Ensure that API providers are handling your data with 100% anonymity.

Those are the top three. If you're looking for more information, you can learn more about it here. Keep it safe out there, and happy Computer Security Day.