The modern office can be a pretty monotonous place. When people do similar tasks over and over again, their attention to detail can wane. That may be a problem for your operational efficiency, but depending on what the expectations are, it likely won’t end your company. Ransomware, on the other hand, can be a major problem for any organization it affects. Today, we will share with you how to get your staff to care about the looming threats that target businesses from over the Internet.

What Threats?
Chances are that most of your employees don’t take network security into account. They have enough on their minds trying to manage their jobs to constantly be worried about a supposed threat coming to take your business down from out on the Internet someplace. This reluctance isn’t malicious in its intent, and from their perspective it’s hard to see that it’s their responsibility.

The fact is, however, that more than 90 percent of all cyberattacks start as a result of a spear phishing email clicked on by an unwitting employee.

Are You Engaged?
The best way to get the people that work for you to extend their vigilance is to level with them. Much like getting a customer to buy a product or service from you, you have to sell the value of diligence to your staff.

It goes a little like this:

Do you want a job (The answer is typically “yes”)? Then you will do what you can to help us keep the network free from malware or ransomware.

It’s as simple as that.

It’s not an elaborate sales job with several moving parts, it's a straightforward ultimatum. It’s something that anyone can understand.

Best Practices
Cybersecurity awareness training costs companies upwards of $1 billion. This is because anyone that works with a web-connected computer is a potential target for hackers. So, without spending thousands of dollars to have a professional come in and train your staff - only to have them make a mistake anyway - we thought we’d help by providing some of the main talking points you would find in the curriculum of one of these cyber security awareness classes.

• Threats - Providing employees the information about the threats they are up against, who is deploying those threats, and how they could end up putting your organization in danger.
• Password policies - Most businesses have some sort of password policy for access to sensitive information. Going over the NIST best practices with them will go a long way toward helping them understand what constitutes a strong password, and why they’re important.
• Web practices and protection - Informing them how they are protected, and what they have to be on the lookout for.
• Email practices and protection - Like the web protections, you have specific solutions installed that are aimed to protect your organization from unwanted phishing threats.
• Preventative measures - These are proactive practices that can help keep them, and your network safe.

Educating your employees is paramount to protect your data, your clients’ data, and your reputation.

Once you’ve gone over all of this information with your team, they will have more information about the threats without you spending massive amounts time and money combating cyber security threats. If you would like help ensuring your staff understands your organization’s security strategies and follows industry best practices, reach out to Data Net today at (760) 466-1200.