How your live chat channel is a back door for cybercriminals and how to avoid

For any organization that wants to continually engage its customers in real-time chat, the best solution would be to use live chat support channels. Some clients may have urgent problems relating to your business, meaning they will want a faster and more efficient response. You don’t want to keep them waiting for the whole day to get a response.

Through live chat channel systems, customers get to share most of their personally identifiable details. When the clients want to chat with their customer service providers, sometimes they’ll have to log in to the providers’ website using their details, emails, and password included.

However, live chat support channels can sometimes offer a backdoor for cybercriminal activities. Hackers with illegal intentions can breach customers’ information for their benefit.

 What are live chat channels?

Live chat channels/systems are technologies allowing companies and organizations to engage their clients/customers in live conversations.

They combine real-time chats with the ability to share links, collect customer; information, and save full clients’ transcripts for future reference.

Besides, it is the ideal online tool for those customers that need immediate assistance or help. They also ensure businesses can solve most of the customers’ problems more quickly to boost their loyalty.

How do the live chat channels work? 

Using live chat software, live chats allow customers or visitors of a company website to have text-based conversations with the support team in real-time.

They allow customers to send in their questions and concerns to their service providers, who can reply quickly via a convenient chat window.

The “live” part of the live chat channel refers to the real-time back-and-forth conversation instead of sending emails to which there could be no immediate response.

What are some of the examples of live chat channels?

A great customer experience meets your customers where they are already are, and live chat channels like messaging apps, social media platforms, and software offer that perfectly.

Some of the best live chat support channels include;

1.  Help on click live chat solution

The Help On Click help desk ensures effective communication with your customers and prospects. Besides, it provides real-time chat with hybrid messaging options that allow synchronous and asynchronous conversations with your customers/clients.

It is a user-friendly website chat integration interface conveniently organized with numerous tracking and collaboration options to help improve your customers’ loyalty by providing conveniences.

1.  Live chat (Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android) 

These are live chat apps that support the overall use and functionality. These channels are exceptional, reliable with outstanding solid performance.

1. Tawk. to  (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android) 

This is a free, full-features live chat channel with many features like a sneak peek, support ticket creation, automated triggers, and chat history. These features will help boost your customer experience.

It is only found on the paid plans. Besides, it also includes dozens of native integrations with a focus on your customers’ eCommerce platforms.

1. Smartsupp (Web, iOS, Android) 

This is a website chat integration channel for understanding how your visitors engage your website. In other words, it helps monitor and record your visitor behavior on your pages. It is mostly accomplished with specific software like Hotjar.

Smartsupp live chat channel has a visitor recording app built on it to provide you with a deeper understanding of the chat visitors’ engagements within your website.

The visitor recording shows the movement of the mouse and where they click at any given time.

1. Live Help Now (Web, Mac, iOS, Android) 

This is a la customers’ live chat support channel that helps you track your customers’ satisfaction. It can prove very hard to get your customers’ feedback on your services. However, Help Live Now ensure you get feedback from your page visitors.

How?

It has a customized survey with sentimental analysis to track any conversations, both the negative and positive.

If a negative conversation is noticed, it might mean that the customers are not satisfied with your services. The conversation will automatically send an email to your admin so that you can reach out to the customer or your page visitor to resolve any possible poor experience.

This live chat solution ensures you do not lose customers. You can always know their satisfaction level to make things up for them when they aren’t satisfied.

Another live chat support channel is;

Snap Engage– this is a live chat support channel that provides secure chatting and data sharing. It’s suitable for healthcare providers, insurers, or other medical-related companies.

During a chat, your agents can securely collect your client’s data, their social security numbers, credit cards, and payments. Agents can gather secure notes from your customers with a few clicks on the chat window.

How can the live chat channels benefit your organization or business?

Live chat channels will provide the following support to you and your business;

1.  Rea-time consumer services. 

Communication with your customers is potentially one of the most important aspects of your business success. Live chat support channels ensure you enjoy real-time communication with your potential buyers and customers.

No customer wants to be kept waiting. Therefore, with live chat channels, you’re guaranteed the benefit of convenience for your clients. Whenever your customers face problems or get stuck in the process of using your product or services, they can always find a solution immediately.

1. Automate your customer service 

The topmost expectation of all customers is getting instant responses to their needs. Therefore as a business, you must ensure your customers are not waiting long for replies or assistance. Ensure you automate your services.

How can you achieve automation?

You can deploy the use of artificial intelligence technology like the use of chatbox, among others. With automation, you can promptly deliver to your customers, reduce customer service costs, and make your team’s performance more efficient.

The moment you integrate live chat with chatbots as part of your customer service strategy, your customer support will improve your brand affinity and loyalty.

Ensures customer engagement 

If there is a reason why 92% of clients are satisfied, then it’s because of living chat channels, which make them more engaged.

In the process of handling chat conversations with clients, most organizations are using live engagement tools such as video chat and co-browsing to enhance the customer experience.

Video and co-browsing ensure your agent can engage your customer through their problems for better solutions and to achieve your customer satisfaction. Besides, website live chat integration facilitates human touch which may result in improved sales.

How?

They offer face-to-face communication and interaction with your customer means you can identify the nature and the complexity of your customers’ concerns in real-time. Besides, having a direct personalized chat with your customers help build trust and loyalty.

Provide OOmnichannelcustomer services. 

Most customers prefer to get or receive service from their providers on their preferred channels. This might be the websites, social media, and messaging apps.

Therefore, it’s your responsibility to manage your customer conversations over their selected channels.

Customers’ satisfaction rates are higher on chatting and messaging than other means of communication. They expect to receive messages from you on their messaging apps, web, or social media platforms.

How does Omnichannel customer service benefit you and your clients? 

The channels provide insight into your customers’ profiles.

The chat and social media platforms always leave a record of customer information or written customer trace. The accumulated customer context can give you a more comprehensive view of how your clients interact with your brand. Besides, you can get learn their different needs and preferences from their posts across the various channels.

Increases the productivity of your support team.

When you deploy Omnichannel customer service in tour business operations, your agents will attend to different customers simultaneously and anywhere, unlike in all situations where an agent can only listen to one client at a time.

Besides, less time is taken as agents can quickly respond to customers’ queries and use the remaining time in focusing on other company activities, increasing their productivity.

Omni channels save you business call costs.

It may sound as if Omnichannel requires more time and money. However, it’s more cost-effective than having to dedicate all your customers’ calls to a phone channel.

Besides, most Omni channels are self-help, meaning clients can search for the information they need without calling your agents. Therefore, the self-help channel releases your agents off huge operational bulks.

Also, it helps you reduce the hiring number of agents allowing technology to do the heavy lifting.

As a best practice, therefore;

Engage in interactive conversations with your customers to gauge their experience and loyalty. You should always remember your customers on social media wants a prompt response. Therefore support them with social media messaging apps for better customer service.

Also, look for live chat customer support channels to streamline all the different ways of achieving communication like audio and video streaming for better efficiency and productivity.

 

Despite the benefits of organizations and customers using live chat support systems, they could be great tools for information breaches. Also, you can read signs of why you need website live chat integration for your business.

How can a live chat channel be a back door for cyber-criminal activities?

First, let’s get to understand what cybercriminal entails.

What is cyber-crime?

Cybercrime can refer to a variety of crimes conducted online using the internet via computers, tablets, and internet-enabled devices.

These crimes could be stealing confidential information that is stored by a company or individuals online. The exposed personally identifiable information could be sold on the dark web and used in committing identity theft. This would put the breached victims at risk.

Therefore cybercriminals are;

Teams of people or individuals who use technology to conduct malicious activities on the digital networks. They intend to steal sensitive company or individual information or personal data.

 What are some of the types of cyber-crime you need to know?

 Identity theft/fraud

This is a crime that occurs when criminals have gained access to users’ details. Criminals can use the information to steal funds or access confidential information.

In cases where a user had store insurers’ details, criminals can find a door to participate in health insurance fraud.

Email and internet fraud

Email fraud can occur when criminals have gained access to your email details, password, and loggings then uses the email for illegal purposes that benefit them.

Besides, they can use your email to lure you into scam activities, sending you fake prize scams. You may receive an email or text message saying you have won a competition that you didn’t even register. The mail may request you to pay some upfront to claim the prize.

You should also be aware of the internet scammers who can put programs on your computers without your knowledge. They may send a scam email then you open it just for your data to be locked or wiped out.

 Cyber extortion

This is where the criminals gain access to the company or personal data then demand money in return for shopping the data.

Some other types may include;

• Cyberespionage- where criminals hack government or company data
• Theft and sale of corporate data, financial or card payment data.
• Cryptojacking- hackers mines cryptocurrency using resources they never had

Learn more about the history of cybercrime and its impacts on the society.

How do live chat support channels expose you to cyber-crime?

You’ll always need a password to access your email, streaming sites, bank, social media platforms, and so on.

Therefore, when you log in to different live chat channels, you use your identifiable details. These channels leave a trail of your contents or details. That means criminals can quickly know some sensitive information you keep, which they could steal to generate profit.

They might sell the data in the cybercriminal underground market found on the deep web.

What are some of the online habits that increase your exposure to cybercrime?

Using one password for everything.

Having one password for all your accounts may be convenient. However, it makes you more un-secure.

How?

Suppose a criminal can crack one of your accounts that are poorly protected and master your password. They will try to use it to get more of your details. What if the same password serves your bank or insurance payment plan? Then it would mean you lose your money and all sensitive information.

Trusting public Wi-Fi networks

You may be having interactive communication on your live chat channel. Still, since you are running out of network/bundles, you decide to continue the discussion on an open and unsecured Wi-fi.

However, some of these networks may be targets for criminals. Take, for example, the man-in-the-middle attack. This is where attackers intercept all the information you share, meaning anything you think is private is no longer personal.

Besides, using an unencrypted network allows anyone to eavesdrop on your signals. For these reasons, with a VPN  you can connect anywhere and keep your information private and secure at the same time.

Being unprotected

You don’t leave expecting to be a cyber-attack victim. However, it would be best if you avoided any attacks. One way to do that is to ensure you take the necessary precautions.

Being unprotected would mean criminals can access your live chats, phone sensitive information from our email and other apps.

Never leave yourself exposed when going online.

What are some security tips for protecting your live chats data? 

There is no doubt live chat is the most convenient and easy-to-use channelthechannels for you and your customers’ services. However, there are specific security measures that you must follow to ensure a secure chat and data control.

To keep your customers, company’s or your data safe, you must;

Regularly change and use stronger passwords

You don’t have to use one password for all your live chat support channelsabout. Besides, ensure you use stronger passwords and change them regularly. Stronger and regular changing of passwords makes it difficult for criminals to gain or control your accounts.

Moreover, you can use a combination of letters plus numbers or symbols to make gazing or cracking difficult.

You can also learn more on how to create stronger passwords here.

Keep multiple chats separate

Of course, the most efficient way to offer live chat support for you and your customers would be to have multiple chat windows at once. But this depends on your multi-tasking ability.

Besides, when communicating with several concurrently, ensure you keep their data separately.

How does this prevent a data breach?

In the process of communicating with different people at once, you may copy and paste ones’ sensitive information unknowingly to the wrong window. This means the wrong person would have access to the other person’s data.

Ensure a secure live chat software

You must ensure your live chat security is made secure at all times. Be sure the chat channel is encrypted from both ends of the communication.

Encryption reduces the risks of intrusion or vulnerabilities. Therefore, ensure your chat support adheres to the standard security protocols such as;

• Two-step security authentication
• Reputable hosting services
• Double-layer SSL encryption
• Network security control, among others

Besides, you must also ensure you keep your software updated. Cybercriminals often use known flaws in software to gain access to your data or exploit your system. Un-updated systems make it more like you can be a target for cyber-crime.

Avoid sending sensitive or private information over unsecure channels

Always strive to know whether the live chat channel you are using is safe or unprotected.

Sending personal data over an insecure channel would put you at risk of information breaches or vulnerabilities. Therefore, ensure you restrain from sending confidential information like payment and account cards via unsecured channels.

Never open un-scanned files 

In some chat programs, you’ll realize files shared. Some of this fileinsecure may be from unknown sources targeting you or customers to open to unleash malware.

It would be best if you never assumed that all files are safe to open. However, scan every file or document before opening them. Besides, you can use a secure virtual document sharing platform to open the files.

Encrypt your chat logs 

You may have a conversation or interaction that you want to continue or decide to keep your chat logs for different reasons. However, you need to ensure your chat log is encrypted. No one can access the information shared, especially when they were confidential.

Report any abuse 

No one is perfect in their communication, and some interactions can prove to be complicated. Therefore, you should take note of any threats or inappropriate comments during the live chat session.

Suppose it’s a customer who has to threaten you; ensure your colleagues and supervisors are aware of the same. Keeping evidence and reporting any abuse will help protect your future against potential lawsuits.

Some other tips include:

• Cut back on your online data sharing.
• Use an off-site online backup system.
• Watch out for scammers.
• Avoid screen sharing, among others.

Conclusion

Every customer or client expects an efficient, faster, and personalized way of resolving their issues or concerns. Live chat is the new way to help deliver real-time customer experience and satisfaction.

However, when using live chat support channels, customers will need to log in using personally identifiable details. Included are full names and location, social security number, bank account number (credits and payment methods), and email address.

The accumulated customers’ information makes it easy for hackers to access the same information of customers which they may use for illegal purposes. Therefore, to ensure your data is not exposed to criminals, ensure you keep multiple chats separate and avoid sending private information on unsecured channels. Also, encrypt your chat logs; you can use stronger passwords that you change regularly.