Let’s be honest. Many people employed within businesses and organisations today are still not taking cyber security seriously. Sure, that’s the responsibility of someone else, the IT Dept, Senior Management etc.
The reality is, when it comes to cybersecurity – it’s everyone’s responsibility.
It’s a well-known fact, that when it comes to cybersecurity, people are often the weakest link.
And this can cost companies a lot of money.
The costs of course, will ultimately depend on the type of attack and how sophisticated it was. Nonetheless, if your business gets caught out by ransomware – no matter how small or large it is, this can cause havoc, taking systems offline for days or even weeks for both staff and customers.
What would it cost your business if you couldn’t access your systems? How about if your website was taken offline?
Start taking Cybersecurity seriously. See it as something of key importance within your business at all times – like physical Health and Safety. Don’t leave it until you’ve had a problem. Start having conversations internally about developing a strategy for managing the cybersecurity of your business.
Here are 5 risks it’s likely your business is taking right now.
The people within your business are often the weakest link. By investing in training your staff, this helps them remain vigilant and capable of spotting potential cyber risks.
No matter how good you think your internal systems are, when it comes to things like spam filters, phishing or spoof email, they can always make it past these filters – leaving your staff who are hopefully properly trained as the last line of defence. Educating your staff is key. Helping them develop the confidence and practical skills to identify risk can add an extra barrier to your business’s cybersecurity. Social engineering for example is used in more than 66% of all attacks. Training your staff on how to spot techniques used in social engineering adds another barrier to protecting your business.
Unfortunately, when you reuse the same password, use weak passwords and share passwords you run a real risk of not just one account being compromised but multiple. Never use the same password more than once. Get into the habit of generating a unique password for each website, app and platform which you use. Data breaches are happening more frequently around information such as passwords getting leaked online and these are being used by cyber criminals. If you use the same password for your personal email account as you do to login to a work system, if the password gets compromised, this can place your organisation at risk.
Simply relying on passwords to keep your internal systems secure is no longer enough these days. Thankfully many software platforms, tools, website’s etc offer many ways to keep systems and accounts secure. The caveat here is ensuring you enable these, where available, across anything you use. 2 factor authentication offers a second layer of security helping prevent possible attacks and blocking access. When it comes to 2 factor authentication it works by refusing entry from a new device or location until a code is used to verify.
It is essential that your business has a clear idea and picture of who has access to what passwords and systems. When an employee who has access to servers, systems and even the company Facebook account leaves, its essential that access is removed right away and the passwords updated according. Setting up limited permission levels is also a good idea ensuring you don’t give complete administration control on your accounts and systems to any one person.
Many attacks start with outdated software. Ensuring that software and security updates are rolled out is essential. This helps protect your business by offering greater security. Hackers love security flaws and software vulnerabilities when a platform or provider rolls out an update. These updates can also help protect your data by closing loop holes. Updating your operating systems and software helps keep the doors closed and attackers out.
Want to know more about keeping your company cyber security safe? To have a chat, book a consultancy or staff training session with me for your company click here
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