A session describes any interaction between a user and a platform. These interactions don’t go away once a user has disengaged with the platform. Records for each session are created and stored. Any changes or updates a user makes during a session can affect the behavior of an application in the future. Large amounts of session-based data are created and stored on digital and mobile platforms. Often times, users finish interacting with a platform that stores session-based data without realizing that their data may have been stored for future use. 65 percent of American consumers have saved payment information on a website or mobile device. This payment information is saved via a user’s online session with a vendor or banking website.
How Sessions Create a Trail
Session data is created through a variety of different online interactions. A person who uses a website or app to make purchases will often have submitted their name, address and payment information in order to complete a purchase. Even if that person never re-visits that website or app again, their personal data can live on the retailer’s servers for years to come. Without the proper security measures, this data can be accessed by hackers. Users must have a great deal of trust in retailers every time they make a transaction. Consumers need to trust that the information that they supply is properly safeguarded and stored by the vendors that they purchase from. Assuming that customer accounts and payment information have been deleted after a period of inactivity is often times an incorrect assumption. Certain ghost accounts can exist long into the future. This means that when a person makes a purchase today there is the possibility that they could be vulnerable to fraud for years to come.
How Is Data Uniformity Achieved?
Big data streaming can reduce the vulnerability of session-created data. An enterprise cannot monitor and protect data if it can’t read and store it properly. Using a platform that can process and translate data universally allows enterprises to be able to properly categorize it as well. Data that is properly categorized can be properly stored and monitored. An enterprise must integrate event stream processing into a platform in order to manage data in real time. An ideal system can analyze data at the exact moment it is being created. The analysis must happen before that data can be stored in order to properly prevent session based data fraud.
What Happens to Session Data?
Every enterprise handles and stores session data differently. Temporary remnants of data that have been gathered through interactions with a platform are typically stored in text files or databases. Enterprises have to handle the storage of session data that occurs when customers, clients or outside users come into contact with their platform in addition to storing their own internal data. This includes data received by phone calls, emails and spreadsheets created by employees while connected to an enterprises’ network. Every third-party platform, device and provider has its own configuration for data. Each piece of data coming into a system is written in its own language and stored in its own format. For that reason, enterprises need to focus on uniformity when it comes to data storage. Improper and non-uniform data storage often plays a role in high-profile hacks. This was seen in a recent data breach that impacted Under Armour. Reports suggest that this particular breach may have occurred because customer passwords were incorrectly hashed.
Session based data is an integral part of Internet browsing, online payment, and mobile app usage. As a result, businesses need to be aware of how to handle, protect, and store session based data in order to avoid fraud.
