Businesses that have found themselves in a positive position during the pandemic and are ready to grow or expand further will need to tighten their cybersecurity so that growth can be an exciting journey, rather than a risky one.
External and internal threats can jeopardise company security. One internal threat you might not have thought about, however, is the staff themselves. That’s not to say there’s a hacker in your mix, but clicking on a sketchy email, not updating passwords, or connecting to too many public networks are all ways your workforce could be opening up your network to cyber villains.
To put things into perspective, check out these terrifying hacker statistics.
If you think your business could benefit from a little upgrade and awareness, you should hire local IT support to lead cyber security training for everyone in the team.
And below, we’re highlighting exactly why.
Your team will be your strength, not your weakness
As we mentioned above, it can be easy for untrained staff to accidentally compromise your cyber security. In fact, the National Centre of Cyber Security suggests that one of the quickest ways your security can be breached is by staff using weak passwords.
By raising awareness of what a cyber-attack could look like, what it could result in, and how you can prevent them, your team will be your strength rather than your weakness in the fight against hackers.
Educating staff on what a phishing email looks like or teaching them the difference between a weak and strong password is simple but can go a long way to protecting your business data and the privacy of your clients.
Higher staff engagement
By highlighting what could go wrong when it comes to a breach in security, you can engage your staff into taking action. An untrained team member can quickly fall victim to an attack, but those trained can flag potential threats before they become larger issues.
Without tying the repercussions to the topic of cyber security, it is difficult to really get through to staff about the importance of it all. Plus, as most cyber-attacks can be easily prevented, engaged staff are more likely to take the extra few minutes to implement two-factor authentication on their devices or to change their password from time to time.
Increased productivity in the IT department
Cybersecurity is just one responsibility for your business’s IT department. And rather than having to remedy security breaches caused by small errors by staff, they can focus on the real work and improvements needed. Why waste resources when everyone can work together to create a safer network?
Data and asset protection
Cybersecurity awareness training is a simple way to safeguard the important data found on your business’s network. By ensuring all departments have the same training and knowledge at their disposal, you can just about guarantee higher security across the board, with fewer chances for cyber threats to gain access.
Data protection is a very real concern for all businesses, but especially for those dealing with personal information, finances, and more. Lost data will not only cause huge levels of worry for you and your clients but will significantly reduce the trust in your brand, and trust is hard to recoup.
Maintain compliancy
Part of working for an organisation means ticking boxes that make the business compliant. This can be health and safety training, confidentiality, or cyber security awareness. Most organisations within the UK will be required to maintain a cyber compliance certification, especially if they’re looking to work with highly sensitive organisations or government agencies.
To keep everyone updated
The world of cyber-attacks is a lucrative business. Meaning as the years go on; certain techniques will become resolute while others will be created that are more innovative, harder to detect, and more damaging than their predecessors.
By providing staff not just one cyber security awareness session but yearly training courses, you can ensure everyone is doing everything they can to prevent attacks. While updating a password and not clicking an email might have been the only precautions to take a decade ago, there are now plenty of other things to consider.
In short, there’s really no downside to this type of training. But the benefits are endless. Protecting your business should be a number one priority, and with staff training, you can get the whole team on board.
