All businesses have one key vulnerability that cybersecurity threats exploit: their employees. Your business has this vulnerability, too, even if you haven’t considered it. Just like any vulnerability, however, there is a patch, and it comes in the form of education. With an appropriate knowledge base, your team can effectively become a human firewall against any potential threat.
Today, we’ll show you how, using the recommendations from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. These recommendations are for the private user, but like most cybersecurity challenges, they are directly applicable to the office environment too.
Phishing is the most common exploit used by hackers, and the most dangerous.
With phishing attacks, hackers can trick your employees into doing destructive things like handing over sensitive information, like passwords or other credentials. They can potentially open up your business to even more dangerous attacks, as they are often the first in a series of advanced scams. Training your team on phishing attacks will significantly reduce the threat that these attacks pose to your business.
Make sure your team knows how to address phishing attacks, including the warning signs and how to report them to IT.
It might make logical sense to shortcut the password creation process, but it’s a major security red flag.
Passwords are the first line of defense against security issues, and it is unacceptable to allow your employees to use half-baked credentials. If you teach your team how to make unique and secure passwords, you’ll have an easier time protecting your accounts and your business. Better yet, make it as easy as possible for your employees by giving them the tools and motivation needed to practice appropriate password standards.
Password management software and regular password change policies can make it much easier to maintain password security.
The simple way to improve account security is to add more locks and layers of security.
This is exactly what multi-factor authentication (MFA) does. It adds additional methods of authentication, like biometric scanning or secondary passcodes sent to external devices or accounts, to make it harder for hackers to gain access to an account. Even if cybercriminals have access to the username and password double-whammy, they’ll be stopped dead in their tracks if they can’t break through MFA.
In short, MFA is a simple way to ensure that your team is practicing effective account security, and we recommend that you use it whenever you can.
Okay, we’re cheating a little with this one—your employees are not technically responsible for this.
Software updates are a necessity to keep your solutions as free of bugs and vulnerabilities as possible. These updates also help your team be more productive, so it’s all-in-all a good thing for your team to use up-to-date software. Your team must know the importance of this, especially in case they end up noticing that they are using outdated software in their day-to-day.
Your IT department should be able to keep up with these updates, but in case they can’t, we have good news for you.
Network security is hard, but it doesn’t have to be.
With First Column IT, you can leverage the power of trained and professional security experts to ensure that your business is staying ahead of the cybersecurity rat race. You’ll have access to a team who can train your employees, help you implement the right security solutions, and monitor your systems for updates and patches to ensure your infrastructure is as sound as possible. It’s easy to make cybersecurity more complicated than it needs to be, but then again, it’s even easier to call us and make it as simple as possible.
To get started, give us a call at (571) 470-5594.
