If you operate a mid-sized or small business, you can prevent data violations by increasing your employee’s cyber awareness. These are some tips to follow to help your employees prepare and prevent unnecessary risks to your business from cybercrimes.
What is Cybersecurity Awareness?
To begin, you should understand what cybersecurity awareness involves. This process is the concept of enabling your employees to execute their role in keeping your company safe from cyber attacks. Training involves leveraging resources, tools to discharge actions, solutions, and credentialing.
When you create a workplace that is a cyber security-aware zone, you will be ensuring all your computers and mobile devices are protected against attacks. Preventing a cyber threat is much more effective than trying to solve one that has already happened. Therefore, having a cyber-awareness plan in place will be much more cost-friendly. Follow these tips to keep your business safe.
1. Be Prepared for Data Violations
Recent studies show that average data violation costs have escalated to more than three million across the globe. You should have a plan in place should you fall victim to such a crime. Having a strategy in place will help you take action and possibly prevent financial or reputational ruin to your company.
Assessments and advanced preparations can also help you detect weak areas and will make sure all your team members are aware of their responsibilities.
2. Evaluate and Reinforce Your Supply Chain
Each of your suppliers has a link to your company and therefore creates a risk to your cybersecurity. Most suppliers do not implement robust security measures, so it could make your company vulnerable. Your best defense against this vulnerable area is to conduct third-party risk evaluations to learn which security measures you will need to protect your data.
3. Create a Security Email
Design an email account where your employees can forward their questions regarding security measures. This account will encourage employees to ask questions they normally would not present. Supervisors and managers should also make sure employees are able to identify deceptive email messages.
The email account should be accessed only by experienced and well-trained staff. The questions and messages from this account will also provide you with valuable training material as it will show you what the major concerns are among your employees.
4. Create Proactive Early Alert System
If you are a victim of a cybercrime, you want a proactive, early-alert system in place to notify your entire company of the breach. It will prevent more employees from falling prey to the attack which could endanger more customers or more of your data.
This early-alert system will ensure your employees understand some of the risks out there from cybercriminals and the techniques they use to steal information. It will also have your security department prepared to protect your data.
5. Make Sure Employees Understand Importance of Cyber Hygiene
Supervisors and managers should ensure all employees understand cyber hygiene is as important at home as it is at work. Every employee should know what they can do to protect not only the organization but themselves as well.
Your company needs to adopt solid measures to protect your data and systems from cyber-attacks. Boosting your employee’s cyber awareness is a critical step in these measures to keep your business safe from adverse effects.
Where to Learn More About Employee Awareness for Cybersecurity
Net Works Consulting Resources understands the increasing risks your business faces from cyber attacks. Contact us today and learn how we can help protect your data and help your employees understand the importance of cybersecurity. Through our coordinated efforts with you and your employees, we can create a system to protect your company from unauthorized access.