What’s a huge threat to cybersecurity?
Hint: it’s also your first line of defense.
Answer: Your staff.
One 2018 study found that almost two in 10 employees fell for a social engineering attack. Without people, hackers would have a much harder time hacking.
Now, you can interpret this fact two ways:
- You’re inevitable going to get hacked. You can’t control for human behavior.
- You have a powerful opportunity to teach your staff before a mistake happens.
Being an optimistic IT company we’re going with option #2. See, we believe people want to do good. They just need the right tools to make it happen.
We’d bet none of your employees want to cause a massive data breach resulting in lost profits, reputations, even jobs. We’d even bet they’d want to know how to actively work against that.
Training Your Staff on Cybersecurity
That’s where you come in. Do you have an in-house IT person or department? Work together to create a training session — or even series — for your staff to participate in.
If you’re working with a managed service provider or other external IT company, ask them for recommended tips and resources.
List general rules such as:
- Use secure password managers to document your passwords
- Always look at a link before you click it
- Visit secure websites that have HTTPS in the URL
In one study, 88% of people who opened unknown files, clicked suspicious links or even responded to the sender worked outside of IT. So if necessary, break your training down by department. For example, talk about mobile banking malware with your finance team.
Remember, IT isn’t everyone’s cup of tea so keep the sessions short. Thirty minutes is a sweet spot. Focus each training on one major topic and takeaway that your staff can apply immediately.
To keep cybersecurity top of mind, send out tips and refreshers regularly.
Consider penetration, or pen, testing. This is when a cybersecurity firm ethically hacks your network to find weaknesses. It uncovers your blind spots before hackers can exploit them.
In short:
- Educate your employees on threats
- Instill a commitment to vigilance
- Create a security-focused culture from the top down
Find out now when to get cybersecurity for your business.
Need help getting started? We’re here. iVenture Solutions is an award-winning managed service provider delivering superior IT solutions to clients across Florida.
As a leading-edge IT firm for small and medium-sized businesses, we provide a diverse range of services covering the entire scope of IT including maintenance, support, hosting and more.
Through rapid response time, reduction of chaos and the right people, our expert team of IT professionals will fulfill your technology needs. At iVenture, we give you more time to do what matters most.
