Cybercrime has been steadily on the rise for the past years. Notably, 2024 was unprecedentedly precarious with the second largest in history National Public Data breach and the biggest healthcare data breach to date with the massive attack on Change Healthcare. Nearly 3 billion records were stolen in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., including such sensitive information as people's full names, Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth.
This made the need for strengthening cybersecurity so apparent to everyone that U.S. officials began seriously discussing the creation of a military Cyber Force dedicated to thwarting cyberattacks. However, the answer to cyber threats is proactivity. The best approach one can adopt is always having cybersecurity at the forefront of their mind whichever aspect of their business they approach.
In this article, I will show how website localization can be tackled with a cybersecurity mindset, both as a source of potential vulnerabilities to prevent and as a tool to strengthen the security of your website and your business.
First, let's lay some groundwork for understanding localization. Localization is a combination of measures aimed at adapting your business, product, and messaging to the requirements of the local market and tastes of the local customers. Translation lies at its core, but localization isn't limited to it and is far more complex and nuanced than replicating your original content in a different language.
Defining website localization
Website localization is an intricate interplay of technical and cultural adaptation of your website for a new locale. Technical aspects of localization are often called website internationalization. The main goal of internationalization is to ensure that a website is technically capable of hosting and displaying content to your target audience in all languages and graphic systems.
Cultural aspects of localization are often called adaptation. Adaptation aims to ensure that the impact of your content on its target audience is the same, even if it means that you should change images, videos, and emoji, adapt to naming conventions, localize date formats and currencies, or modify the design and layout of your website to meet the expectation of the local audience.
Key components of effective localization
Localization of a website is a multifaceted process requiring unified effort from all the teams: developers, content creators, designers, marketers, etc. Here are the key components to focus on when introducing your website to new audiences.
Technical components:
Translation:
Cultural adaptation:
Now, how does localization affect cybersecurity? Although some of the risks of localization for cybersecurity are unpredictable emergent occurrences, most of them can be tackled preemptively. Let's break down some of the common challenges.
Unique cybersecurity challenges in global markets
If you operate as a global business, it's essential to launch a localized version of your website for every region. However, with the increasing role of AI in cybersecurity ,it's equally important to make provisions and mitigate potential risks at the stage of planning your localization.
Third-party vendor security risks
One of the most ubiquitous threats to cybersecurity in global markets comes from vulnerabilities in third-party applications or dependencies used by your business to build localized ecosystems in each market: ecommerce platforms, ads, online banking integrations, support chatbots, etc. The more variables in your network, the more potential vulnerabilities and data breaches.
Regulatory compliance risk
Before going into a new market and rolling out a localized version of your website, you should thoroughly research all the pitfalls: data compliance regulations are very different in the U.S., EU, and China. Many industries require strict adherence to regional data protection laws, like GDPR or HIPAA. For example, in 2018, GDPR non-compliance caused a data breach that cost British Airways £183 million ($230 million) for exposing personal and financial data of nearly 500,000 customers.
Machine translation tools
Machine translation and CAT tools available online for free often carry additional risk to your localized website security. These tools depend on the data they collect and process to provide more accurate translation. That means, that by using free tools without advanced security settings, you risk exposing your (or your clients') data by sharing them with these crowd-sourced tools.
To prevent such risks, make sure you use reputable localization platforms like Centus that offer you robust privacy settings to protect your data: managing access for safe translations, secure data storage, flexible deployment options, integration with primary enterprise IT infrastructure, etc.
By tailoring your website to comply with local laws, you not only safeguard user data and avoid any legal repercussions but also earn the trust of your customers by demonstrating a commitment to protecting their interests.
Enhanced data protection through regional compliance
Different states around the world have varying data protection laws (GDPR in the EU, CCPA in California, etc.). Localized websites, by adapting the ways they handle data for each new location and complying with local regulations, enhance cybersecurity worldwide.
When a U.S.-based ecommerce website operating in the EU ensures compliance with GDPR requirements by obtaining user consent for cookies and implementing mechanisms for data deletion requests, it not only fulfills legal obligations but also wins user trust.
Improved user trust with localized security features
Demonstrating that your website cares about customer safety and adapts to local security expectations builds trust. Your customers feel confident sharing data with you and this in its own turn is beneficial for the security of your website. Trust reduces the likelihood of exploits and phishing attacks because loyal customers are more likely to identify legitimate communications from your site like security alerts or notifications about unusual activities and spot minor discrepancies that usually characterize scam messages.
Localization helps foster the feeling of transparency and control meaning that your customers are more likely to report attempts at hacking or double-check with your support team if anything suspicious is going on.
Reducing vulnerabilities by adapting to local threat landscapes
Each location has its specificities when it comes to security threats. For example, in Latin America, the major threat to cybersecurity stems from comparatively weak payment gateways. If you localize your ecommerce website for this market, you should add localized security features to prevent exploitation of this local vulnerability. For example, encrypt transaction details and add verification steps to secure and approve the exchange between your platform and the customer.
In light of everything we've discussed, you might have the impression that localization is more trouble than it's worth with all the additional risks and vulnerabilities. This isn't so! Localized cybersecurity measures can become the source of your website's resilience and stability. Here are some strategies for leveraging localization to improve the security of your website and business.
Adapting security measures to regional standards
In order to protect your customers in the local market and enhance your global website security, you should complement your overall localization efforts with a set of localized security strategies.
Adherence to local security standards
Security measures considered standard in your region might not be enough to meet the expectations of security in another geo. For example, while SSL certificates mandatory in the U.S. seem quite enough, Europe demands additional certifications like PCI DSS compliance for ecommerce websites.
Flexible authentication methods
Depending on the culture, different authentication methods can be more or less preferable or trusted. While customers in Australia, China, Canada, and the United States prefer biometric authentication due to the wide availability of smartphones with fingerprint scanners or face recognition technology, customers in Angola, Kuwait, and Rwanda often opt for a confirmation code sent by SMS instead.
Additional measures like Google Authentication, QR code, etc., might be preferred locally, so it's best if your localized website allows options that cater to this preference.
Managing multilingual CAPTCHA and security questions
Certain security questions might lose their relevance in translation, for example, a popular "What's your mother's maiden name?" question isn't applicable in cultures where family names aren't commonly used. To maintain the efficacy of your security measures, you should adapt these user-facing elements to suit the culture.
An incident response team (IRT) consists of IT professionals who handle any emergencies, such as data leaks, system outages, or hacking incidents. A localized IRT should possess:
By adapting your incident response strategies to the unique cyber landscape of each region, you can minimize security risks for your business and your customers. Additionally, following cloud migration best practices can further strengthen your cybersecurity posture, ensuring data integrity and secure infrastructure during digital transitions.
Region-specific security training for your users is a proactive step you can take to protect your customers and your website. For example, in regions where ransomware attacks are prevalent (France, South Africa, Italy, India), it makes sense to run an education campaign teaching your end-users how to recognize and avoid malicious links.
At the same time, in regions where SIM-swapping fraud is more common (Brazil, Mozambique, U.K., Singapore), such campaigns should focus on teaching users how to secure their mobile numbers with two-factor authentication or tying the number to government-issued IDs.
As we have undoubtedly established, localization and cybersecurity are two pillars to build the trust of your audience worldwide, preserve your reputation, and protect your business operations. Proactive steps like user education about cyber threats, training your IRT employees, ensuring compliance with local regulations, and using secure tools for translation and localization are the bedrock of a robust strategy to maximize global markets. We hope that the steps proposed in this article will help your business thrive safely.