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Summer is coming to an end, which means kids head back to school, pumpkin spice lattes reign supreme, and the build up to the holidays begins.

It’s no secret that data security is a buzz-worthy topic.

Let’s be honest: consumers don’t trust marketers.

Your brand has a sizable blog. Traffic has steadily increased over the past few months and you decide to ramp up your publishing schedule to target new keywords. But then you hit a roadblock. Traffic flatlines.

“We should probably have a newsletter, don’t you think?”

In a digital age, data security is a top priority, but it can be difficult to know who exactly is  responsible for securing sensitive information. While companies may feel they have sufficiently secured their own data, those that utilize SaaS vendors in their business put their sensitive information and business data in the hands of these vendors, who store it in the cloud or on-premises at their location. There are a number of security considerations and variables a business should keep in mind, especially related to cloud security. But it's helpful to remember one simple question when considering vendors or evaluating current protection efforts: Does the country housing my data care about security? Countries that do have taken action to protect personal and business data stored in their country or region. Other efforts to protect personal information include enforcing security standards, developing national cybersecurity strategies, and providing public awareness campaigns, among others. Countries that received lower scores have done less to ensure businesses are protecting data and require less transparency between data collectors and individuals.  In a globalized world, servers could be housed in any number of countries other than the one your business or a software vendor operates in. Still, it should be considered a potential red flag if vendors operate out of extremely vulnerable geographical regions.  Every year, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) releases the results of a worldwide security survey titled the United Nations Global Cybersecurity Index (CGI). The index provides an overall security rating based on a number of factors related to legislative, organizational, technical, capacity building, and international cooperation.