Cybersecurity must be at the forefront of any business technology strategy. Contrary to popular belief, the biggest threat to your company lies not in technology itself or even in the hands of cybercriminals. The weakest link is, in fact, the untrained employee. Studies have consistently shown that human error is ultimately to blame for a majority of data breach incidents and other attacks, which is why security training should be your top priority when it comes to mitigating the threats that your business faces.
Here are five bad habits that employees should be trained to avoid:
#1. Not Following a Robust Authentication Policy
Your information security policy is, by itself, a worthless piece of paper if you’re not enforcing the rules and using the right technology solutions to do so. More importantly, you need buy-in from every member of your team. Security is everyone’s responsibility, which is why every employee needs to understand why your policies are shaped the way they are and why each control is in place. Technological controls will help you enforce your authentication policies, but relying on them alone is asking for trouble given that the threat landscape is constantly changing and evolving.
#2. Not Paying Attention to App Permissions
While modern operating systems tend to provide a fairly robust infrastructure when it comes to asking for application permissions, most people take them for granted. Technological measures can help you restrict which permissions may be granted but, again, the responsibility ultimately falls to your staff to follow the rules and be vigilant when it comes to using and installing new applications. This is especially the case for companies with BYOD policies, in which they let employees use their own devices for work.
#3. Not Being Suspicious of Unsolicited Emails
Email is the favorite delivery channel for phishing scams, as well as a multitude of other threats. While a lot of phishing emails are blatantly obvious to the trained eye, it would be a grave mistake to assume that’s always the case. More sophisticated scams, for example, don’t even get caught by the best spam filters, and they tend to be targeted towards specific individuals. Employees should be trained to always look twice, particularly when they receive an email or any other correspondence from an unknown sender.
#4. Not Applying Updates
While the responsibility to keep your operating systems, firmware, and other software up to date might not fall on your employees, it’s still important that they’re aware of the dangers of running outdated software. Again, this is especially important if you have a BYOD policy, particularly since many smartphone and computer users aren’t in the habit of proactively maintaining and updating their devices. That’s why, if you do have a BYOD policy, you should make security updates a requirement. Security patches in particular should never be postponed under any circumstances.
#5. Not Knowing Where to Save Data
Centralizing your computing operations through the cloud, whether it’s a private or a public cloud environment, can make data governance much easier, but that doesn’t necessarily stop your employees from unwittingly storing confidential corporate data in the wrong place. For example, an employee might download or copy a document containing sensitive information to an office workstation, a third-party cloud storage service, or even one of their own devices. That’s a recipe for disaster, since it makes it nearly impossible to keep track of everything.
SinglePoint Global helps businesses safeguard their digital data with cutting-edge security measures. Contact us today to find out more.
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