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The most common forms of cybersecurity breaches involve human error. After all, hackers know that the most flawed element of cybersecurity is untrained staff, or staff that subvert or won’t follow the correct protocol. You can have the best cybersecurity patches applied to your servers, or the strongest managed IT services around, but if your staff forgo the essential training they’ve been given, it’s not long until their accounts can become exposed and the data on your servers is exposed.
Even the most competent companies can fall victim to this. Rockstar Games, one of the largest video game developers and publishers on the planet (entirely tech-savvy and raking in billions from their popular title Grand Theft Auto: Online), saw a great deal of content from their latest, secretive game sequel stolen and published on social media. This was accomplished by a teenager no less. Law enforcement has since caught up with them, but the damage has been done.
With that in mind, training your team to avoid cybersecurity failures is essential for every team to follow. In this post, we’ll discuss how and why to achieve that:
Avoid Phishing
Phishing attacks use social engineering or parodies of verified, trustworthy content to try and cause human error within a team. So for example, a fake email with a seemingly trustworthy layout emulating a banking institution or other trustworthy enterprise may be sent to a victim. This victim may then click on the link, input their information to ‘log in’ on a fake website, and then of course, find this data breached.
It’s important to train your team to avoid phishing attempts by encouraging them to verify every email they receive, as well as teaching them to avoid phishing by checking on the domain names and email addresses to every correspondence they receive, as well as reporting spam links or other spoofing attempts ahead of time so the entire team can be aware of them. It’s also important to tell your staff to never give their user account passwords or information to anyone, especially not those who directly ask for it. On top of that, phishing detection services can go a long way in identifying this and managing it correctly.
Account Security
Teaching your team to practice essential account security is necessary, and can be achieved more easily than you may imagine. Teaching them to change their account password every two or three months, teaching them the process for logging into their virtual private network when remote working to protect and encrypt their traffic, and also preventing them from leaving their accounts open when not in use will make sure they don’t make a vital mistake.
It’s also important to show them how to utilize mutli-factor-authentication (MFA) so they’re the only people who can easily access their account. In some cases, you may even provide them with additional security infrastructure like a security key which must be present in order to log into their account with ease.
Device Management
If you equip your team with devices they can use to log into their user profiles and work from their dashboard, it’s good to make sure those devices are used solely for the purpose of work. Here you can remove applications that are not relevant, only install approved apps and updates, and show them how to secure their laptops, how to join public WiFi through VPN networks for safety, and also how to lock and encrypt documents they may be used if they’re of a sensitive nature.
You may also show them how to verify the installation license of a device to make sure it’s approved to your company standards, and emphasize that remote work must only take place through this device and nothing else. On the whole, this can prevent mistakes from being made or vital access from being given, especially regarding data that is currently confidential. Remember that it’s not just ‘hackers’ but sometimes those who practice corporate espionage that you need to protect form.
Cybersecurity Concepts
Teaching basic cybersecurity concepts such as the importance of applying every patch update for security, the latest scams and viruses to watch out for, to avoid downloading untrusted files on their computers, and how to identify verified websites via the security certificate before correct use can go a long way.
In the long run, this will inspire your staff to keep on top of their daily organization and ensure bad practice is never born from laziness.
With this advice, we hope you can continue to train your team on how to avoid cybersecurity failures going forward.
