Nowadays, businesses have to think on their feet to outwit those that are wanting to do harm or create criminal mischief. Encouraging your employees to take an active role in the prevention of falling foul could help your business stay on its feet and stop any expensive breaches before they happen.
This is why you should take all aspects of your security seriously and do what you can to keep everyone involved in your business safe from harm.
#1 Educate Employees About Cyber Risks
It is important to educate your employees about the cyber risks that they may face. After all, they will likely be the first point of call. As with many things, knowledge is the first step to enlightenment, and ignorance is the biggest threat of all.
Password Strength
Your employees should be taught the importance of a strong password, and the reasons why they are asked to change it frequently. Strong passwords should be at least 8 characters long (the longer the better) and include a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
A password should not be connected to any names of people, places, or pets that can be easily guessed due to social media profiles and posts that are almost always under surveillance from cyber criminals.
Phishing Attacks
You should educate your employees on what phishing emails look like and what type of information the cybercriminals will be after. Although phishing attacks are generally a way of creating access to your databases to steal information, all kinds of mischief can be achieved if they gain access. For instance, they can hold some of your software or information for ransom, which can not only be inconvenient, but also expensive and time-consuming to sort out.
Other Tactics
Although most crimes you are likely to be faced with will be cybercrime, there are still very convenient methods where your business could become a victim. For instance, information passed over the phone from one of your employees, which given in good grace may not mean much, could provide a criminal with a customer name, account number, or more usable personal information.
Provide Escalation Policy
With this in mind, you should provide your employees with an escalation policy so that they know what to do if they feel they have been subjected to a cyber-attack. Supplying them with a person to go to and share their experiences as soon as the incident happens can help put the wheels in motion for your IT security to get on top of the breach.
#2 Take Your Risk Management Seriously
With all this in mind, you should take your security seriously and invest in some quality risk management software, such as that from www.surecloud.com. This software will be constantly assessing your potential risks throughout your business, which will, in turn, provide you with clarity on how to act and what precautions to put in place to counteract any risks that become very real.
Educating your employees should not be the only step that you take in protecting your business. Risk management software is there to help you assess the risks throughout the whole of your business, and it should be taken advantage of. This will help you focus your efforts in the areas where they are required the most.
