Security awareness is an important topic nowadays. You may be asking why you can’t simply stop cyber attacks, ransomware, and viruses. There seems to be an unending battle against these cyber crimes.
With how fast technology is advancing, cyber criminals often take it as an opportunity to be one step ahead from businesses to perform cyber crimes. It is necessary to always be up to date on security trends and different security threats to plan and strategize on how to combat such threats in case it will occur in the future. Businesses, no matter how big or small they are, should always implement a cyber security plan. A cyber security plan is a series of methodology on how to prevent cyber attacks, on how to fight hackers in case there’s a penetration and what are the steps to be taken after a cyber attack.
Therefore, being aware of the latest security strategies can help you protect your business from significant financial loss.
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Importance of Security Awareness Training
The security processes and protocols of an organization should include ongoing security awareness training. Obtaining an adequate cyber security knowledge will be a great help to continuously improve employee security awareness. Businesses can opt for an online security awareness training to help their employees learn more about business data security. It is proved that employees who undergo security awareness training lessens the risks of data breaches and are more knowledgeable about cyber attacks thus easier for them to notice when there’s a cyber attack and know how to combat those attacks.
Designing programs that reinforces employee productivity and business growth is crucial for long-term success. However, security challenges are always there to test the readiness of your team.
The following are common security errors that employees make and how to correct them
- Sending emails and other sensitive information to wrong recipients. This is a serious issue to address your employees in order to avoid disclosing important data. Prevent email mistakes today and save your company from huge data loss.
- Clicking on fishy links and attachments. Links and images are usually used by hackers to infiltrate accounts via emails and websites. Phishing is sending you an email and then taking you to a malicious site where it appears to be your IRS or bank. Without knowing, it’s obtaining your personal details while installing malware on your computer.
- Copying sensitive data to USB drives, lost mobile devices or laptops, and using personal computers for business. Flash drives are an easy target for malware and worm viruses which use them to quickly transfer data between systems. Always use encryption when putting personal details on your flash drive. Also, use only secure devices that have authentication to avoid business data from being stolen.
- Using similar passwords and default usernames, system misconfigurations, and inconsistent patch management. Firewall breaches don’t just happen because of sophisticated process, but mostly on misconfiguration and human errors. This usually happens because firewall configuration is not an easy process. To minimize human error, plan and execute changes in the business infrastructure. Identify risks and review possibly exposed areas in the system.
- Cyber security insurance. Having a cyber security insurance could help you financially recover from data loss due to data breaches. It also helps you notify your customers about data breach, restoring their personal information, recovering compromised data and repair computer damages.
Most importantly, every business must have strong written policy in order to achieve successful security awareness training. Without certain policies, it’s impossible to enforce and train your employees for ultimate security methods.
Exposure and risk of corporate systems are extremely high due to the staggering power of social engineering. If you are not aware of the latest security strategies, then you are exposing your business to risks. Use the internet as your advantage and search for resources you can use in widening your knowledge to come up with excellent security strategies.