Whether you are managing your small or midsize businesses, you have to give importance to cybersecurity. Without incorporating cybersecurity into your business strategies, you cannot secure your businesses from hacking, data theft, and other cybersecurity threats.
In order to develop the best cybersecurity practices for your company, you will need to create a culture of cybersecurity first. Surprisingly, cyber goons attack business networks by taking full advantage of employees’ negligence.
Unfortunately, employees are the main cause of businesses’ data breaches or losses in most cases. They do not know about the different methods hackers or other cybercriminals use to attain crucial business information.
Therefore, you had better provide cybersecurity awareness training to your employees to help them combat cyber risks. You can follow different cybersecurity practices that allow you to improve cybersecurity in your organization considerably. These practices are:
SECURE YOUR REMOTE WORKFORCE
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many business owners and employees are working from home. Hence, you should train your employees on how they can stay safe and secure while working remotely.
You should advise them about installing a VPN on their work devices to protect their business communication, including sensitive company information. If they are using desktop computers to perform their official tasks, employers can guide their remote workforce regarding installing Windows VPNs on their devices.
You can provide them this list of completely free Windows VPNs that are easily configurable and simple to use from anywhere. This way, they can mask their actual IP addresses and securely access the office networks without being a liability.
PROVIDE CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS TRAINING TO EMPLOYEES
When providing cybersecurity awareness training to your employees, you must discuss the adverse impacts of phishing attacks. This is because hackers perform 91% of cyberattacks through phishing emails.
Thus, you should educate your employees on how they can tackle the issue of phishing emails successfully. They should identify the possible signs of phishing emails themselves, such as grammatical errors, incorrect sender addresses, embedded links, etc.
Likewise, your employees should know what to do when they receive such emails in their inboxes. In addition, they should never respond to these suspicious emails and delete them immediately.
USE STRONG PASSWORDS
Cybercriminals can easily guess weak passwords; therefore, employers should educate their employees about using strong and complex passwords on their official devices. They should not use the same passwords on their different accounts as they are prone to data theft and other security issues.
To create strong passwords for official devices, employees should use password managers to create complex and strong passwords that are difficult for hackers to crack. As a result, companies can secure themselves from possible security breaches to a certain extent.
CYBERSECURITY CULTURE DO’S AND DON’TS
If companies are unsure how to start developing the cybersecurity culture at their workplaces, they can follow these dos and don’ts appropriately:
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Do’s
Check your employees’ awareness about cybersecurity on a monthly basis. Luckily, you can conduct mock phishing campaigns to see whether they abide by the cybersecurity practices or not. This activity can result in reaping greater security and privacy rewards. Contact us if you’d like to run a phishing simulation at your business.
If your workforce does not comply with the cybersecurity guidelines, use constructive criticism to deal with them. Consequently, they should start following cybersecurity rules.
You should develop a simple process that immediately helps your employees report suspicious emails to the concerned security department.
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Don’ts
You should not use complicated concepts during cyber awareness training programs because it can make things difficult for your employees. They might not be able to follow the security guidelines properly.
You should not forget to include every employee of your company, including managers, executives, top management members, IT teams, and others while creating cybersecurity strategies.
You should not overlook the importance of robust cybersecurity culture at any cost. Therefore, do not forget to remind your employees that the concept of cybersecurity culture is not limited to workplaces only. They can support each other beyond their workstations. This way, all the employees can keep themselves secure and combat various security issues while working from home and anywhere.
WRAPPING UP
When creating a cybersecurity culture at your company, focus on improving the weakest link in the security chain, i.e., employees the most. Apart from this, educate your employees about cybersecurity culture do’s and don’ts as mentioned above.
Moreover, you should try to clear the air regarding the misconception that cybersecurity is a one-time activity. You have to instill the notion that maintaining cybersecurity is everyone’s job. Similarly, you can reward and appreciate your employees if they do the right things to improve your organization’s cybersecurity.
