October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, but of course, it’s crucial to make sure your business is cybersecure every single day! The modern office is changing quickly with a rise in teleworking, coworking, and remote employees; this evolution necessitates adaptation in the way that we protect and promote cybersecurity in the workplace. With advances in technology, hackers are also getting more savvy and difficult to detect. It is more crucial than ever that we ensure that all employees are fully aware of the best practices for cybersecurity; here are some tips for maintaining a cybersecure workplace.
1. Spread the word.
Awareness is the foundation for a strong cybersecurity plan for your organization. Each individual employee must understand their own role in maintaining the cybersecurity of the company and the importance of keeping with consistent and careful cybersecurity practices. Whether you have an internal IT department or outsource your technology needs, your employees should know who to go to when they need help or have questions pertaining to cybersecurity.
2. Technology isn’t everything.
Even with impressive advances in cybersecurity tools, having strong malware protection and a secured WiFi network isn’t always enough to prevent a data breach. Humans interacting with this technology can make a small mistake in setting up cybersecurity protection tools or opening an attachment in a phishing email, which is enough to compromise the cybersecurity of the organization as a whole.
3. Business info can be personal info.
Every member of an organization should understand that business data can be personal data too, and guard it as such. Through tax forms and financial accounts, workplaces generally hold crucial personal data belonging to their employees, including bank accounts and Social Security numbers. A breach of business data could mean for a substantial vulnerability for personal data as well.
4. Once is enough.
Most breaches are not the result of large scale hacking schemes but rather a single innocent mistake. It only takes one click on a malicious link, one weak password, or one weak WiFi connection to compromise the cybersecurity of an entire organization.
5. Telework wisely.
If an employee is using a personal device to conduct business, this may be a point of vulnerability in organizational cybersecurity. When an employee is working outside of protected organizational Wi-Fi or servers, they are at greater risk of being hacked. Make sure that your employees understand how to secure their own personal devices.
6. Beware social media!
Many workplaces currently have no official social media policy in place, this is an easy starting point to creating a cybersecure workplace. When employees use their personal social media accounts to manage company profiles online or reuse the same personal passwords for accounts affiliated with the organization, they are exposing themselves and their companies to greater risk of experiencing a cybersecurity breach.
