Depending on what happens in Maine, your business clients may soon be on the hook for losses suffered by their customers due to a data breach.

One way to protect them is to share what your financial institution knows about protecting customer information.

Below are a couple of best-practice methods to keep at the forefront of your communication with businesses interested in maintaining the security of customer data.

Shred It: Create a policy whereby all documents and papers containing cardholder proprietary information is shredded on a daily – if not more frequent – basis.

Layer It: One level of protection is not enough. Use a combination of security measures, such as encryption paired with firewalls.

Delete It: Never retain or store full magnetic stripe or CVV2 data from card transactions.

Scan It: Consult with IT specialists to perform regular scans for software vulnerabilities and abnormal activity.

Minimize It: Keep only the least amount of cardholder data necessary for as limited a time as possible, and always encrypt stored information.