10 ways your employees can compromise the security of the business in 2020
This year, a record number of employees have been working remotely and flexible working practices are set to stay, with many predicting that works from anywhere will be the new normal.
While working from anywhere improve employee satisfaction and reduce the cost of rent, business needs to consider significantly increased risk for cyber security that comes with working outside the office.
In fact, whether you work outside or in the office, employees can often be the biggest risk to business security. Thus, you need to be aware of this risk and know how to protect your business from them.
We have listed the ten most security risks common business that we have found the employees to be guilty. Read on to learn how to identify the threat and adopt the right solutions to eradicate them!
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business security employees
Outside the office
1. Using a public Wi-Fi
If employees outside their homes, such as working in coffee shops, restaurants or hotels, they will likely be connected to a public Wi-Fi. These public Wi-Fi hotspot is very common and easy to connect to. People often link on their mobile phones without thinking twice about what they call.
Employees need to be vigilant about putting valuable details when using a public connection, such as login details or financial information. This is because network security is often minimal and sometimes no. Thus, connecting to public Wi-Fi along with a large number of risks that could cause business data being stolen and used evil.
2. Leaving a laptop or cell phone in a vulnerable spot
lost or misplaced device can lead to your business data falls into the wrong hands and, in the end, put the security of your business at serious risk. If a hacker can steal a device with sensitive business information on them, they can easily get this information and use it evil.
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3. Sharing passwords
Share passwords with other people is dangerous, even if you trust them. While you can control who you share your password, you can not control who they will convey this information to. This could lead to potential data breaches, for example, if an employee left the business on a bad note, with the knowledge of important passwords, they can act with malicious intent.
4. Using their own devices without any security measures in place the right business
Using personal devices for work purposes and store corporate data to personal devices can put your business at risk. For example, these devices may go up for sale, forwarded or discarded in a safe manner. Connecting personal devices for business networks can also spread malicious programs and viruses for the hardware business.
However, allowing employees to use personal devices for work purposes can also be very helpful. It can give employees more freedom in terms of where they work and when, for example, allowing them to send email through their phone while on the train. You just have to be sure that you have a cyber security measures are appropriate in place to facilitate BYOD (bring your own device) working practices, such as Microsoft Intune – can you find out more about it here.
5. Using a cloud service that is wrong
There are plenty of cloud options out there that provide an easy way to store data on the cloud computing, making it accessible from anywhere, anytime. Using the cloud for data storage has become very popular because of its flexibility, adaptability and efficiency are on. But you need to make sure that your employees are using the right cloud computing solutions to maximize security.
For example, many people use a service like Dropbox in their personal life as a way to store and access data through the cloud. While this is often okay for private use, and though employees may have the best intentions, they do not have to use cloud services to store business data that has not been approved by you or your IT support provider. If they do, you and your business will have control over this data or how it is used, which can pose a major risk to the security of your business.
6. There is no passcode on smartphones
Business data can now easily accessible on mobile phones, in particular with access to email and documentation via the cloud. And, generally, professionals do not use their mobile phones to eliminate email or refer to files when they are out of the office. But if the business data being accessed on your phone, you need to ensure that employees have a strong, secure password on the device as a minimum.
In the office
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7. Weak passwords
Hackers are becoming more innovative and better able to conclude our password, which is why employees should be more stringent, ensuring that they are creating strong passwords and secure. Here are some tips to create strong passwords:
Make them at least 10 characters
Use mixed case, numbers, letters and symbols
Make sure no recognizable words your password
Use a password generator to create a secure password for you
Save your password in password manager that is secure so you do not have to risk their record elsewhere
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8. Falling for phishing scams
One of the most common ways that businesses hack is through human error. You must make sure that your employees are not going to fall for email phishing scams. This attack can be very serious and very targeted, which means that employees need to be educated on how scammers can commit cyber attacks. For example, fraud CEO is a popular form of email fraud, where cyber criminals claiming to be a CEO or business owner by email and ask employees to complete tasks that provide them with important data or benefit them financially.
To protect the security of your business, you have to invest in cyber security awareness training. This training will educate all employees in your organization from cyber security risks that they could give up on. They also will assess the knowledge of their employees and ensure that they are always updated on new scams and equipped to manage the potentially dangerous activity.
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9. Downloading, installing and updating
Allowing employees to install the program on their work PC could be a good thing because they can install the tools to help them work better. However, it can also cause them deliberately put the toolbar interrupt or advertising software, which can interfere with productivity. In fact, in cases of very dangerous, malware is sometimes advertised as a download, meaning that if your employees download it, devices and their data will be corrupted.
Similarly, temporary employees must be careful when downloading things. They also have to be ‘on the ball’ when it comes to installing the update. Many people resort to click “remind me later” when the update appeared, choosing instead to update the software. This could be a threat to the security of your business as out of date software often contains errors that allow the entry of a backdoor into your system.
If you’ve been outsourced IT support partner, they will handle all updates for you in the background. Make sure your machine is up to date and protected; and take the pressure off you and your team.
10. Using social media in the workplace
Aside from being a drain on productivity, social media can also be a major risk to business security. Social media sites can be used effectively to promote click-bait that will direct users to a malicious website to download undesired content, therefore, put your business at risk.
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