One of the easiest vectors for a cyber-attack is employee negligence. Easily avoidable mistakes, such as using the same passwords at home and at work, put company data at risk. According to a report from information security company Shred-IT, 47 percent of business leaders attribute data breaches to human error or lost documents or devices. Plus, plenty of data breaches originate from phishing attacks, which means that some employee at the company must “open the door” to the hacker for the breach to occur.
Because data breaches can incur enormous costs and greatly harm your company’s reputation, its imperative to do all you can to prevent or mitigate the threats if they occur. Often its difficult to know how to discuss this important issue with your team.
As you work to prevent employee related cyber-crime at your company, keep these three basic principles in mind to encourage cyber security best practices.
1. Keep a finger on the pulse of your workforce: One of the first lines of defense against cyber crime should be human resources. This department can play a key role in raising employee cyber security awareness, as well as educating employees on safety measures. HR departments should also be aware of any disgruntled employees as 22 percent of cyber crimes are inside jobs.
2. Hack your system: One of the best ways to assess your vulnerabilities is to try to hack your own systems. This proactive approach, called ethical hacking, will uncover vulnerabilities before cyber criminals can exploit them.
3. Shore up your weak points: Of course, once you’ve uncovered chinks in your armor, you have to patch them up as soon as possible. And companies are often surprised by some of the holes in their own security. Vulnerable computing areas include printing solutions, employee devices, and mobile platforms.
Cyber security must be a top priority for any company that wants to remain competitive in the years ahead. By continually evaluating a company’s own security profile and re-mediating weak or vulnerable areas, companies can find that they stay one step ahead of cyber criminals bent on exploits and cyber crime.
