Security – Defend your Business

Locking the door to your house might seem like second nature and good common sense to keep your valuables safe. But what if you get home and realise that someone has left a window wide open for robbers to get in. Was there any point in locking your front door

This works much the same way in cybersecurity. You have probably invested in good cyber security to protect your business. You probably use strong passwords or a password manager, have strong firewalls and keep your devices up to date. This is the ‘front door’ but what if one of your employees leaves the ‘window’ open? The truth is that your employees might be one of your biggest security risks.

Remote working has skyrocketed, and research shows that the majority of employees use their personal devices such as phone and laptops for work. Why not right? This is where the problem lies. These devices are most likely not secure or at least not set up with the same security measures that you use in the office. Their phones and laptops might use weak passwords, outdated software or even be connected to unprotected Wi-Fi networks. Thus, leaving the window wide open for hackers.

That is not all though. Did you know that 2 out of 5 employees admit to downloading sensitive data onto their own devices. This could mean customer data leaving the safety of your business. If that isn’t bad enough, here is another scary statistic. More than 65% of employees admit that they only follow cyber security rules ‘sometimes’ or ‘never’. This includes forwarding work emails to their personal accounts, using their phones as Wi-Fi hotspots. Passwords are another problem, with nearly half of employees using the same passwords across multiple work accounts. Even worse is that over a third of employees use the same passwords for both work and personal.

Imagine a hacker getting into your employees social media account and using the same password to get into your business. Scary right?

The key to preventing this from happening is education.

Educating your team to understand why cyber security is important and what the risks are is incredibly important. You can also create security rules that are . clear and simple to follow such as using a password manager instead of their own passwords and only accessing work systems on work devices.

Regular training, the correct tools and clear rules can turn your employees into your first line of defence rather than your weakest link.

If you would like any more help or advice about cyber security, we would love to hear from you.