Things You Should Teach Your Employees About Cybersecurity

The world has changed a lot in the last decade. Companies are now more reliant on computers, mobile devices, and internet connections to conduct business than ever before. The problem is that this reliance has made companies much more vulnerable to hackers and cybercriminals. To protect your company from cyberattacks, you need to ensure your employees know how these attacks work and what they can do about them. Here are things every employee should know about cybersecurity:

Good Device Ownership

Good device ownership refers to the education of employees on how to use company-owned devices responsibly. A few practices to instill in employees about good device ownership include:

• Set a strong password
• Backup all devices you own
• Never open suspicious links sent via email and never click ads from unknown sources. Sometimes these ends with viruses or malware that could potentially compromise data security
• Never reveal your password to anyone, even if it’s family or close friends. It is essential for security, so you don’t become the victim of a social engineering attack

Password Practices

You can create complex passwords with a mix of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, special characters – anything you can think of. Don’t create easy to guess passwords like “password” or “admin.”

Also, teach your employees about password managers, so they don’t re-use the same password for multiple sites. Helping your employees understand this can be more beneficial than anything else. Password manager apps generate strong random passwords that are unique for each location. This way, even if hackers breach one account, they won’t be able to access other versions because it’s difficult (if not impossible) to figure out which username/email address goes along with what password.

Backups 

Backups refer to the data stored in another location. You can save it on a storage device or server not connected to your network, like cloud-based services. Anytime you work on something new, make sure you backup all your previous changes and save it somewhere else, so if anything happens with this one file, you won’t lose any progress. 

Spam and Phishing Education

These terms refer to the practice of sending emails with the intent to deceive. Hackers disguise it as an email from a legitimate source, such as your bank or internet provider. Spam and phishing education are critical because employees are often the target of these attacks. When an employee is aware of what to look for, it reduces the likelihood of opening a harmful email.

Software and Hardware

Software refers to the programs installed on the computer. It is essential to install all software updates as soon as they become available because they usually fix existing security vulnerabilities or patch up new ones that hackers could exploit.

Similarly, it is crucial to update operating systems regularly with patches for known bugs and exploits to prevent intrusion by cybercriminals.

Hardware refers to the physical components of the network. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that hardware, such as routers and switches, are up to date with their firmware so they can adequately communicate across a home network without being compromised by hackers.

Ongoing Updates

Ongoing updates refer to those that happen automatically without any human interaction. For example, you could update the software on your computer to fix bugs and avoid security vulnerabilities, or you can update passwords as needed. It is important because employees may not always remember to do it themselves.

Social Engineering Attacks

Social engineering is very effective because it can trick even the most intelligent employees if they are unaware. Therefore, make sure all team members know how these scams operate to protect themselves and their co-workers when necessary.

A good practice is encouraging everyone on staff to follow this rule: If something looks suspicious, always verify its legitimacy before acting on it. It helps prevent unnecessary errors while protecting your company’s security at the same time.

Conclusion

In conclusion, cybersecurity is an essential concept that all companies should be taking measures to protect themselves against. Unfortunately, cybercriminals are constantly coming up with new ways of exploiting businesses, so organizations must take the time to educate their employees on how this works and what they can do about it. By following these simple guidelines for both device usage and cyber education, you’ll ensure your business stays safe from cybersecurity threats.