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Are Your Employees Security Aware? – Steps You To Take For Ultimate Security
Last Updated on: October 26th, 2024
Are your employees security aware? To make your employees aware, the best solution is to consult a Professional Security Firm for training ideas.
An employee’s laptop computer is stolen from their unlocked car, and the personal information of thousands of your company’s customers is suddenly at risk.
A person dressed as a utility repairman talks a new employee into helping him gain access to a sensitive area of the building. Suddenly, every asset in that area (from information to people) is at risk from a nefarious actor.
A person, the new security guard doesn’t recognize claims to have forgotten her key to the IT department. Later, an electronic “sniffer” device is discovered in that area, and suddenly, the firm’s entire database is at risk.
In this article, you will learn about how to make your employees aware of security in your organization. To elaborate, the article will list down the initial steps you can take to make your employees stay vigilant in case of risks.
Are Your Employees Security Aware? – General Problems
The past few years have seen businesses of all shapes and sizes invest in security infrastructure. Security Systems for commercial premises have been able to keep out anti-social elements and miscreants that are interested in stealing confidential data, financial records, and insider information. Having this is a safe fall-back to strengthen the overall levels of security within the organization.
And it could have been a much worse device, discovered only after a major loss, not only a loss of data. But, in the most egregious cases, the possible loss of life and limb.
These are just a few of the all-too-common threats to your organization’s security that result from a lack of security awareness on the part of employees and staff.
Proper security awareness training, such as the type of education available from a professional security company, can go a long way toward minimizing these threats and helping protect your firm’s most valuable assets.
Importance Of Security Awareness Training For Employees
According to Tech Target, “Security awareness training is a strategic approach IT and security professionals take to educate employees and stakeholders on the importance of cybersecurity and data privacy. The ultimate objective is to enhance security awareness among employees and reduce the risks associated with cyber threats.”
To craft a good security awareness program, a company must ensure that its employees are taking critical measures to protect the organization.
Furthermore, the organization must also provide a detailed overview to employees about the corporate policies and procedures. This will enable the employees to learn how to work securely and whom to contact in case of potential threats.
Hence, the organization needs to customize the security awareness training to ensure employee engagement. It is crucial to engage all employees at all levels.
By implementing effective security awareness training, employees will be able to practice cyber hygiene. Furthermore, they will also be able to recognize security risks that are present in their day-to-day job role. As a result, they will be better able to identify potential data breaches that are possible through web platforms and email.
Consider These Sneaky Tricks Bad Guys Utilize
Perpetrators are often very smart and can be more familiar with your organization’s security procedures (and its weaknesses) than even your long-time employees and staff.
Here are just a few of the tricks they do to penetrate your firm’s security and threaten your assets:
Playing On Human Nature:
People generally want to be helpful. New employees want to make a good impression? and even the most intelligent staff members are often absorbed by their work to the point of being easily distracted by security procedures.
The bad guys know this and use techniques that fall under the general umbrella of “social engineering.” They are often very good at attacking your firm’s assets by playing on the human nature of your people. You want your staff to be friendly and helpful, but not to attackers. Good security awareness can and should go hand-in-hand with good customer service.
Shoulder Surfing:
This happens when an attacker learns a password by looking over the shoulder of a person who isn’t aware that their keystrokes are being observed. The solution? First, encrypt passwords so they are not easily visible on computer screens.
Second, train your staff to be more aware of their surroundings. Finally, make sure everyone knows at all times who is in their immediate area (and, importantly, who can be there and who should not be).
Tailgating:
When someone follows a badged employee through a doorway (or through a gate to a secure parking area) without presenting their own credentials, they could be a person intent on attacking the firm’s assets.
Again, employees should be aware of their surroundings at all times, and no one should be allowed to enter a secured area without presenting their own unique credentials.
Piggybacking:
Piggybacking occurs when a credentialed employee intentionally lets a non-credentialed person get access to secure areas or data. Usually, as a result of the bad guys using “social engineering” tricks to convince them it’s okay (or coerce them in some other way).
When everyone on the staff is highly security-aware, the threat of piggybacking becomes greatly reduced. Again, security awareness training is a good answer here.
Obviously, the weakest link in any organization’s security chain could also be its strongest protection – the organization’s people.
Furthermore, a lack of employee security awareness opens the firm to lots of risks and threats. But solid training and high-security awareness among staff members make things very difficult for the bad guys.
Make Sure Your People Are As Security-aware As Possible:
Call your local professional security firm today and ask for a full evaluation and threat assessment. Find out what training programs or protocols can be used to improve your organization’s overall security awareness.
Make things as hard as possible for those who would attack your firm’s assets, and they are likely to take their nefarious activities somewhere else.
Major Benefits Of Security Awareness Training For Employees
The following are some of the common benefits that security awareness training offers to both employees and the organization:
- Successful security awareness training will ensure that there is no financial loss in the company. Basically, the right training module will reduce the likelihood of security incidents and breaches.
- After an incident unfortunately happens, you can minimize the risk of the incident. All you need to do is empower your employees to be proactive in identifying and addressing data breaches.
- Security Training reduces human error and can equip employees with skills, knowledge, and the mindset that helps to reduce errors in operations.
- Once employees understand the significance of preventing the loss and damage of data, they can prevent the loss of data.
Wrapping Up
Are your employees security aware? Hope this article was helpful in finding the answer to this question. You can see from this article that a good security awareness program can provide knowledge to your employees on how to act in breach situations. This way, they can either prevent or lower the impact of breaches.
Do you have more suggestions on how to implement employee security training? Please consider sharing your ideas and opinions in the comments section below.
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