Why Your Employees Might Be Your Worst Security Risk (Infographic)
Vasilii Chekalov, Digital Entrepreneur & SEO Expert
Cybercrime often boils down to one simple factor – the hacker finds a loophole or vulnerability in your security system and exploits it. This could be as simple as your anti-virus software not doing the job properly, but, as you’ll see if you have a look at the EveryCloud infographic, 52% of data breaches are as a result of system failure, or human error. Which means that your employees might well be the worst security risk that your company faces. So, do install some great anti-virus software, and even consider installing software that scans all incoming mail to remove suspicious messages. But don’t stop there. You need to take things a step further by introducing security awareness training at your office. Do consider getting in a professional to give your staff a talk on what threats to look out for and how to stay alert.Take things a step further and incorporate this information into your company manual. But once again, that’s not enough. You’ll need to repeat the training periodically and ensure that the consequences for slipping up in this area are severe enough that staff pay attention.Here are some ideas about what procedures to implement. Make Passwords a PriorityMake it a rule that passwords be at least sixteen digits long. You can set things up so that nothing less is accepted when a new password is chosen. Also make sure that every password has both capital and small letters, special characters, and numbers as well. Do steer clear of sequences that might be guessed. “Password4theday@1234,” for example, meets the above-mentioned criteria and it’s a fairly good password but for the fact that it is based around an actual work, and a sequence of numbers that would be easy to guess. A good example of a password would be “Kq26ha$rmp4951*x.” Take things a step further by changing out the passwords once a month. Limit Access to the System as NecessaryThat new filing clerk that you hired doesn’t need to access every single system that you use in order to be effective at his job. Identify exactly what tasks each staff member needs to undertake and then ensure that they only have enough access to do their job. This limits the damage if someone gets careless, or if the employee decides to steal information. Further to this, if someone resigns, revoke all access to the system for them as soon as they walk out the door for the last time.Consider Implementing a Two-Stage Verification SystemOkay, we know that these can be annoying because they add an extra element of work for you. But they really are helpful in preventing unauthorized access. So, even if your employee is careless about their password, the second authentication step will come into play.Monitor Employee Activity On the SystemYou need to be able to have a look and see what systems an employee is accessing. If they’re accessing client files that they aren’t supposed, or they seem to be digging around in the system, you need to know as soon as possible. With a little care and foresight, you can help protect your company from data breaches that could cost the business its reputation and a lot of money.
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Awesome Cyber Security Facts Infographic
