Prepare your employees for cybercrime with these cybersecurity tips!

A significant amount of information is sent out into the world every day. We like, share, and tag things for both personal and professional reasons with great enthusiasm. While incredibly convenient and fast, most of us are frequently skating on thin ice. We aren't just a bit careless at times; cybercriminals are also becoming increasingly clever at phishing and hiding malware.

What is cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity (information security) involves taking measures to protect the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of data. This allows you to prevent a data breach, ensuring that confidential information does not fall into the wrong hands—such as those of cybercriminals.

Has your company sufficiently prepared for this? Does the contract with your IT service provider contain any hidden clauses regarding liability if things unexpectedly go wrong? Have you invested in more than just a spam filter and anti-spyware? For instance, do you have a data breach filter that tracks emails containing sensitive information like bank account numbers or social security numbers? If so, you are well on your way. But you aren't there yet. Don't forget the weakest link in cybersecurity: the employee themselves.

Even people who are known as active security nerds in their private lives often lean back quite comfortably at work, under the assumption that IT will have everything well taken care of.

But where people work, mistakes are made. You might recognize this yourself. You get distracted for a moment and click on that malicious link. You share a copyrighted document with an acquaintance because you thought it wouldn't do any harm. Or, you unintentionally agree to an auto-complete suggestion in the address bar when sending an email containing sensitive information.

5 tips to prevent a data breach

Of course, we don't have the illusion that every company can be made 100% data-breach-proof. However, we do have a few good tips that can significantly increase your company's digital security.‍

Tip 1 - Increase security awareness among employees

What is security awareness? Security awareness refers to the knowledge and attitude of your employees regarding the safe handling of data within your organization.

For some people, cybersecurity feels like a distant concern. They are sometimes unaware of the sensitive aspects they deal with in their daily work. That is why we would like to provide you with a number of security awareness examples that you can implement within your organization.

First, it pays to regularly discuss data security during team meetings and focus on recognizable practical examples where digital security was at stake. It is important that this is not about assigning blame. It is more productive to discuss how certain mistakes could have been prevented.
‍

Second, it is good to keep the topic of cybersecurity on the agenda by having all colleagues create new (strong!) passwords every four weeks. Ask your IT wizard to occasionally send out fake phishing emails to see how people react and who might need extra support in developing their security awareness. Such a test is not only a good measurement tool; it is also a wake-up call for all colleagues, regardless of whether they fell for it or not.

Tip 2 - Be clear about what can and cannot be shared

What is obvious to you may be a big question mark for someone else. Therefore, do not rely too much on common sense and other people's intuition. Clearly documenting which data can be shared internally and externally, and with whom, is not an unnecessary luxury. Determine the authorization level and decision-making authority for each job role.

Does someone cross the line without permission? Make it clear in advance what the consequences will be, and act accordingly.

Tip 3 - Stress is one of the biggest cyber threats

Research shows that many mistakes are made in the daily hustle and bustle. Clicking a link or sending an email just a little too quickly can have major consequences. Before you know it, production data or pricing information ends up with a competitor, or a medical leave file is sent to the wrong employee.

Does such an incident happen regularly in your organization? Then it is advisable to take a targeted look at the workload within the departments where these types of mistakes occur. Perhaps one or more people are overloaded. It might be possible to adjust task distributions or budget for slightly more staffing.

Read more here about tackling stress at work.

Tip 4 - Include cybersecurity in the exit procedure

Is an employee leaving the organization? Then make sure the door isn't just closed physically behind them. Lock down everything online as well. So don't stop at handing in keys and phone, but include cybersecurity in the exit procedure.

If you followed our second cybersecurity tip, you have a clear overview of the internal and external systems the colleague was authorized for. Remove them from these systems and from the cloud. Of course, you also shut down the email address, after setting up an out-of-office reply that clearly states where people can turn for information and questions from now on. Naturally, you do all of this with the knowledge of the departing employee, and you first ask for a thorough handover of important documents and contact details. Because that is how you have defined it in your exit procedure!

Looking for more offboarding tips? Read more here.

Tip 5 - Create a security awareness training for all colleagues

It should be clear: cybersecurity is relevant at virtually every level in every company. That is why it is a good idea to put together an accessible information security course on this topic.
‍
Just a few examples of questions you could include in such a course:

• How can you recognize a phishing email?
• What should you do if you unintentionally added the wrong recipients to an email?
• Where do you report that you made a mistake in the digital domain, and what happens to your report?

It can be interesting to ask your data protection officer to write a short article or, even more accessible, to record a video as a lesson module. Have them share a few highlights from the undoubtedly colorful collection of data breaches and near-breaches. Here too, the point is not to point fingers. Keep it factual and light. Also invite colleagues to share their own experiences with each other. What did they run into and how did they solve it?

This gives everyone the chance to learn from each other's mistakes and best practices. 

Get started yourself with creating e-learning! With Pluvo, you can set up the best courses for your employees in no time.

Need more cybersecurity tips?‍

We can help you put together an accessible and fun IT security training. Moreover, we're only human too, so we also have some juicy examples from our own practice of where things (almost) went wrong. And we're not afraid to share that knowledge and those mistakes with you!

Or maybe you're curious about the cost of security awareness training - we can tell you more about that too. Feel free to contact us!