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Who’s Keeping an Eye on Your PII?

By: Ross Federgreen CIPP / US, CIPP / G, CIPP / E, Founder of CSR Professional Services and Ric McCullough, Vice President Sales & Customer Service, PSA Security Network 

As the world becomes increasingly concerned about data security, The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) announced that beginning about January 1, 2016 it will make identity protection services available to its 106 million customers nationwide. The new services, which will include Credit Monitoring, Fraud Detection and Fraud Resolution Support, provide safeguards in the event of a breach of the personal and financial information of the millions of Americans that BCBSA serves.

Threats to Personally Identifiable Information Increase

As the world gets more connected, we conduct more of our lives online. Information is becoming the new source of power and wealth. PII (personally identifiable information) is the gold standard of all of the information that is out there. Anyone who pays any attention to the media these days is bound to think that breaches are a daily event. And they are.  All businesses, large and small are tempting targets for the bad guys. In addition, most compromises are non-malicious and the result of human error.  Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about how businesses are protecting their data.

Taking Action

BCBSA is one of many companies taking aggressive steps to fortify protections for customers.  However ID theft protection programs do not go far enough.  Businesses must be prepared for what they are required to do if, despite all their best efforts, they lose PII.  Federal and state government rules are making it mandatory for businesses to take post-breach actions such as reporting to government agencies.  Reporting is not a simple task.  Who, what, where and when to report differs from state to state.

Empowering Customers with the Readiness Suite

PSA has teamed with CSR Professional Services (CSRPS) as a key partner in our Business Solutions Program. CSR Professional Services offers the CSR Readiness Suite™. This is a patent-pending solution that addresses both preventive breach strategies and post breach information that your customers need to avoid significant fines.

CSR Readiness Suite includes

• Breach Reporting Service™ (BRS) is a patented, award-winning solution for handling post Breach Reporting
• Readiness Risk Assessment and Readiness Program designed to ensure that your business customers are employing the latest standards to minimize their appeal as a PII target.

Partnering with PSA and CSR allows you to provide commercial customers with the peace of mind that they will have from knowing that experts are available to them in case of a breach.

 Increase Your Recurring Monthly Revenue and Enhance Your Relationships

• By providing your customers with CSR Readiness Suite™ you are giving them a valuable service and adding profits to your bottom-line.
  • Requires no capital investment
• Become a more integral part of your commercial customers’ business
  • The Readiness Suite applies to all breaches whether they occur onsite or a lost cellphone in the airport. You are providing security where ever data may be.

BCBSA is one of the first companies to take such aggressive action to help protect its customers’ information. They have set the stage for other businesses to demonstrate that they not only care about their customers’ PII, but that they are willing to take concrete steps to actually help guard it. Security integrators pride themselves on building solutions designed to keep people and physical assets safe and secured. The security industry is expanding in a new direction where integrators have an opportunity, and an obligation, to protect customer data as well as help those customers strengthen their own data protection programs.

For more information visit CSR Professional Services website.