Secure Your Customer Data: Here’s How

3. Follow the data. “When someone submits data to you, does it go to an unencrypted Web server and then into a clear-text database? If so, that’s dangerous,” Cobb notes. “Hackers may find the database and tap into it.” According to Cobb, hackers can log on to Google, type in “MasterCard,” a four-digit prefix and a generic expiration date such as 04/04, and up will come text files filled with a retail site’s customer credit card information.