Cybercriminals are big news, and not just for businesses with plenty of remote workers. Even if your team is still all in the same office, that doesn’t mean that they’re immune from attacks. In fact, recent data shows that no business is too small to escape their nefarious actions.
With this in mind, you should arm your workers with as much information as possible to spot malicious behavior and what to do if they find it. After all, many cyberattacks succeed not because of a failure on the part of any of the technology involved but because of human error.
Start with end-user education
It’s true that most people are more savvy about opening emails than they were a few years ago, and messages from unusually generous African princes tend to end up being ignored or deleted. The bad news, however, is that in the same period of time, cybercriminals have also upped their game. Instead of just general fake emails sent en masse, they can now also target smaller groups, like people who all work for the same company, and provide more specific details that make the ruse more believable.
This is called Spear Phishing, and to learn more about that and the other types of threats your employees face, you should approach a specialist cybersecurity company that can provide this education and also audit the technical solutions that you already have in place.
Next, look to MFA
Some of your workers will no doubt take their laptops home in the evenings or at weekends to catch up with work. You’ll even get one or two, probably at a senior level, who take their laptop on vacation with them to stay in contact with the office in case somebody needs them. This is all well and good (although you shouldn’t encourage it) until someone’s laptop gets stolen and whoever has it can access all of your data.
To combat this, as well as ensuring that the password or PIN they use to access the device is changed frequently, you could introduce MFA (multi-factor authentication). This might be a simple measure like a text code sent to their phone when they log in (as they might get when using online banking), swiping a security pass, or using fingerprint or retina recognition.
After that, make it all habit
Once these procedures and information are in place and being used, you need to ensure that things stay safe and secure. You need to nominate one person as the “go-to” person to report any strange emails, accidental clicks, or if a device has been stolen. They should ideally be a member of the IT team, but somebody who isn’t too senior and who’s approachable, so employees are more willing to come forward and admit they got it wrong rather than cover it up. You should also book refresher training and updates so everyone stays abreast of the latest threats.
To wrap it all up
Many cyberattacks succeed due to human error, so you need to make sure employees are well-trained to keep those errors to a minimum. You should also have measures in place to ensure that if a device is stolen or a password is leaked, there are other measures in place to stop cybercriminals running riot through your network. This, together with making it all a habit, can help you avoid the terrible financial repercussions of a cyberattack.
