Whilst it might go against the common perception, the greatest threats to your business are not external – they are internal. Now don’t panic, I’m not talking about industrial espionage or sabotage here! Rather, I’m talking about the potential risks that even the most trustworthy employees can represent. The painful truth of the matter is that most members of your team are just a few clicks from seriously damaging your business.
Maybe they accidentally install a piece of spyware that captures your passwords and keystrokes. Or worse, what about ransomware that could hold your crucial data hostage until you pay out obscene amounts?
Then there are the simple mistakes – such as connecting onto an unsecured network – that could potentially result in your customers’ data becoming fodder for malicious hackers.
We’ve all heard about the high profile cases of Dropbox and Sony. We see stories of personal data being siphoned from big organizations all the time – and the share prices of those companies always fall drastically in their wake.
Don’t become a victim. Take action now and protect yourself and your employees from the serious threat that is cyber attack. Here’s everything to know.
IMAGE: PIXABAY
The Most At Risk Sectors
Is your business really at risk? Short answer: yes, they all are. But there are some that are more at risk than others. Some of the most at-risk are:
- Healthcare
- Financial
- Professional
- Manufacturing
But the sector most at risk is the IT industry. Here we have seen a total of 109 breaches, with 1040 incidents. That’s pretty major.
The types of data that they’re most interested in harvesting meanwhile are confidential business information, privileged account information, intellectual property, employee data, and sensitive personal information often belonging to clients.
The Biggest Targets
But this doesn’t affect you right? You’re just the guy who brings the coffee! – Well, you might not be completely safe seeing as regular employees are the most at-risk professionals! Privileged IT users and admins are second in line, and not even customers are safe. This is a problem that affects all of us – and no matter your position, you have a moral imperative to ensure your systems are secure.
But don’t people already know how to defend themselves? Recently, 200 unbranded USB sticks were recently dropped at a public location to test the current state of security awareness – and a shocking 17% were plugged in. 69% of people are happy to work with sensitive data on public wifi. And 59% of people use the same password on every computer. 22% of people open and fall for phishing emails.
So, do you really think your employees are safe from cyber threats?
The Solution
The best option is cyber security training. A good program will cover:
- Corporate policies and procedures
- Information on who to contact and how to proceed should a security threat be discovered
- How to identify threats
- How to identify at-risk data
Topics that should be addressed will include but are not limited to: password security, malware, desktop security, email security, GDPR training, travel security, working remotely/public networks, social engineering, phishing scams, mobile device security, physical security and its relation to cybersecurity, and more.
Is this effective? Absolutely. One study shows that phishing attack susceptibility went from 27% to 3% as a result of training. That means 24% fewer data leaks.
And that’s just one type of attack. Imagine how much safer your systems will be from brute force attacks on weaker passwords, unsecured networks, DDOS attacks and more! Don’t wait to be attacked. The best defense is good cybersecurity.
If you are interested in even more technology-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels then we have a lot to choose from.
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