Getting Employees Up To Speed On Cybersecurity In Three Easy Steps

These best practices will keep your business more secure and profitable.

Concerned your business might fall victim to ransomware or a phishing scam?

You’re not alone. It’s a reasonable fear, given how cyber crime has grown over the past few years. To make matters worse, despite everything cybersecurity experts do, cybercriminals continue to mount attacks — and those attacks get more sophisticated with each passing day.

For this reason, it’s essential to make your employees an integral part of your cybersecurity plan. Firewalls are great and all, but they mean nothing if your employees haven’t been trained to recognize threats when they crop up.

If you’re serious about protecting your business from cyber threats, you need to prioritize proper cybersecurity training for your employees.

Here are a few steps to take to get you on your way to a more secure business network.

Establish Clear Cybersecurity Policies

If your employees have a set cybersecurity policy to refer to and follow at the very beginning, you’ll be in a better position to stop bad habits before they start. This should be a significant part of new employee training and a stand-out section of your business’s orientation packet.

New employees should have a copy of these policies on their first day at work.

An example of what to include could be an established password policy.

Require employees on your network to include at least one number, one symbol, and one capital letter in their password creation. You might even require that the uppercase letter not be the initial letter of the password, nor the number or symbol be the last.

Encourage your employees to come up with passwords that fall outside of expectations.

Also, remind employees not to write passwords down where anyone could find them and to change their password every three or four months.

A straightforward password policy can go far in keeping your network safe. Well-established procedures give your employees the guidance they need to do their part.

Use Interoffice Messaging and Emails

When news of developing cyber threats occurs, it’s critical to get this information to your employees as soon as possible.

Forewarned is forearmed. Knowing about the latest threats means employees won’t be caught by surprise.

The easiest way to get employees up to speed on new threats is to send a company-wide email or text message. These notices don’t have to be complicated. A link to an article describing the latest threats should be enough.

The goal is to quickly inform as many people as possible without making it a day-long chore.

If you don’t have time to do it yourself, assign an office manager or IT team member to take care of it. Assign them the duty to scan cybersecurity news every week or so and send out relevant information to employees. In turn, make sure everyone knows to check company emails or messages regarding cybersecurity-related news.

Hold Regular Training Sessions

Handouts and occasional emails are great and all, but they aren’t enough.

While both are effective to a point, your business would be better served if you also provide regularly scheduled training sessions to keep staff current on new cybersecurity developments both inside and outside of the company. Regular training sessions or workshops also send employees the message that you take your business’s cybersecurity seriously.

Every four months — three times a year — an hour or half-hour session should be enough to run through the latest cybersecurity policies and mention any new threats to be wary of. You should even have time to cover at least one specific subject per session, such as recognizing phishing emails or what to do when you suspect a cyberattack has occurred.

Cybersecurity Awareness Is Good Business Practice

The more emphasis you place on cybersecurity awareness, the more your employees will do their part in keeping your business and customer data safe.

If all else fails, remind them that a serious data breach could bring a business to its knees in short order — thus affecting job security. It’s in their own best interest to take part in keeping your networks secure.

In short, cybersecurity is in everyone’s best interest.

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