April 21, 2023
There shouldn’t be a business owner running things that aren’t aware of the risk of cybercrime and the potential cost of a data leak. Most businesses that suffer a major data leak have to close their doors two years after the incident: that’s how serious they can be. As such, clamping down on potential security concerns is a must-do for all businesses using digital technology, but could it be the case that your employees are amongst the greatest risks to your business’s tech security?
The more people who have access to a certain document or piece of data, the greater the risk of that data going somewhere it shouldn’t. Employees can jeopardize data even unknowingly, so it’s always important to make sure that you have thorough access control protocols. This way, you can make sure that people only have access to the data that’s relevant to their job, so that they don’t become a potential threat to it in the future.
The single best way to make sure that your team is well aware of the risk they could pose, even inadvertently, by taking the wrong actions is to teach them about it. From phishing scams to the danger of leaving their workspace unattended while logged into the business network, cyber security awareness training can help them become much more mindful of what risks to be on the lookout for, teaching new habits on how they use digital technology. It’s wise to top up on this training, keeping it fresh in their memory every now and then.
One of the trends spreading rapidly in the world of business is remote working. You might find that remote working makes your team more efficient and productive, but it also comes with security risks. You might not be the one in control of the devices your remote workers use or the networks they use to connect to business resources, so it’s important to secure remote access for your business. You can do this by, for instance, ensuring they are using VPNs and anti-malware software.
One of the most important things about cyber security is that it is always, to some degree, changing. Ransomware is a relatively new phenomenon, for instance, at least in the frequency with which we’re seeing them now. Keep up to date with cybersecurity news, get to know what the latest threats are and make it part of your usual briefings with your team. This, alongside reminders of their cyber security training with additional lessons, can make sure that the team is kept sharp and that security is always partly on their mind. If you get complacent, that’s when you are most at risk.
A lot of breaches that happen to businesses come directly from the employees and the tools they use to perform their work. Make sure you’re addressing that with the tips above.