
Our world is completely different now than it was two years ago. Global pandemic Covid-19 had a major impact on our life and consequently on our online presence. With all the governments introducing lockdowns and encouraging people to stay at home, closing movie theatres, restaurants, and even most of the shops, everybody has been spending more of their lives online. What else can you do when you are not allowed to do anything? We have turned to the internet in almost every aspect of our life. Even businesses and organizations had to learn to adapt and to accept the process of digital transformation. It is no longer possible for businesses or organizations not to have an online presence, because in this time and age that is the only way they can stay competitive and reach their customers.
None of this would be possible without the devices we use to access that new digital world. From desk computers, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones, our devices have opened new opportunities for us and made this pandemic not as lonely as it could’ve been. But, not everything that this new digital world has brought us is as great as we would like, because with the rise of internet traffic came also the rise of cyberattacks. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has reported that the number of internet crime complaints jumped by 1 million between March 12, 2020, and May 15, 2021. Before the pandemic, it took three years for the complaints to increase by 1 million. These are staggering numbers and they emphasize the importance of cybersecurity.
The duty of every business or organization is to ensure their user and their confidential details are secure while using provided services, and by doing so also ensuring the security of the business. One of the best methods you need to implement in your cybersecurity plan is using the users’ devices to verify if they are valid or fraudulent users. In this sense, we’ll be looking into device fingerprinting and how it can assist online businesses do some background checks on the profiles of suspicious users.
How to track how users connect with your service?
All of the internet access to your business is going through the users’ devices which provides businesses a unique opportunity to track how users are connecting with their services and to confirm if they are legit users through those devices. From shopping, working or studying from home, organizing your appointments, and having some fun during lockdowns, everything is working online, which makes the role of online businesses in dire need of user verification.
Device fingerprinting was primarily used for marketing purposes because it can give you unique insights into your customer and their behavior and gives you exceptional opportunities for the use of targeted marketing. By tracking a user’s device fingerprint, you can create a clearer picture of who your users are, where they are coming from and what you can do to improve your business. Not only is this one of the best tools you can use for your marketing plan, but it is also an indispensable element of any decent cyber security plan.
What is device fingerprinting and how to use it?
Device fingerprinting is a process that analyses users’ devices to create a unique ID of the user so it can keep track of it and recognize any suspicious devices. This unique ID is called device fingerprint. Think about it like this, your fingerprint is made unique because of the lines on your finger and the way they create different patterns. The same idea applies to the device fingerprint, it is made unique by hundreds of different variables that are unique to that device. That can be the operating system, IP address, location and language and location settings, browser features (flash, java, etc), and much more. Some users might have some similarities in the variables used to create device fingerprints like operating system and language settings, but there will always be some differences, just like with your own fingerprint. Having a unique device fingerprint assigned to each user makes it easier to track them when they access your services and to recognize any fraudulent behavior. By noticing differences in device fingerprints of your users, you can stop fraud attempts before they even happen.
Don’t wait until your business falls victim to the cyberattack, educate yourself and your employees and implement proper security tools to protect your business and your users.