Back in the days, business owners only had to worry about criminals physically entering their shop or premises – these days, however, they might reach us through the digital world instead.
It is actually a lot more likely that they try to target us this way too as it’s rather easy if the business hasn’t been focusing on cybersecurity and keeping their digital information secure.
You can make sure that this doesn’t happen to your business, though, as long as you take a few important steps and have the tools ready to train your employees as well. That way, you will have an entire team to back you up in case someone should reach out through the web and try to snatch your details.
Here is a handful of tips in terms of stepping up your cybersecurity and training your employees to protect your business from the frontline. It is not a guarantee that you will never be targeted, though, but it does make it a bit harder for the cybercriminals to break through.
First: Hire a professional
While it depends on your own expertise in the field, hiring a professional to talk to your employees is one of the first things you should do. They need to have someone to ask questions and hear some real scenarios from, after all, and if you’re not able to give them any other details than being sceptical to suspicious-looking emails, it’s probably better to hand the job over to someone else.
Another important point to this is that you should hire them to come in and have another seminar a bit later on as well. It’s not just because your team will need the repetition, although this is a part of it, but rather because cybercriminals are constantly finding new ways of targeting businesses – and they should be able to stay up to date.
Have a look around the web to find someone suitable and hire them for a seminar right away. Remember to talk to your employees about this first, though, and mention that you’re planning on focusing more on cybersecurity in the future; that way, they have time to prepare some questions and process the concept in their minds first.
It’s the kind of stuff that helps a lot when the actual seminar takes place as they won’t just sit around and listen but rather be proactive. If they manage to read up on the subject a bit first, it’s even better.
Remember to educate yourself
Keep in mind that the employees will look to you when the seminar is over, though, and it’s better if you’ve educated yourself a bit first as well. Go through all of the new programs that are out there in terms of cybersecurity and try to understand them before you unleash them upon the company.
This will, however, take time to learn and if you’re not completely confident with using these tools, you might want to treat yourself to a course as well. It can only benefit your company, after all, and the more the leader knows about cybersecurity, the easier it will be for the employees to make the right decisions and have someone to turn to.
You can start by reading up on this two-factor authentication providing an extra layer of security for your business to get started right away. It’s just one of the many tools you can use to increase your business security and give yourself the protection you need in case you should be targeted, so remember to read up on everything else as well.
One of the many challenges in terms of cybersecurity is, of course, to stay one step ahead of the criminals. If you don’t continue to read about the topic and educate yourself on all the new stuff happening, your business simply won’t stay up to date even if you’re using all the most modern security programs out there.
Next: Let them learn from their peers
Now that you understand the importance of focusing on cybersecurity and educating yourself as well as your employees, it’s time to look at what you can do to ensure a safe office. While some of your employees may not know much about the topic at all, you might have someone who knows more than the rest – and they will be able to look after the others for you.
Make sure that this person knows that you depend on them in terms of cybersecurity and that the other employees know that they can turn to him or her with their questions. It is extra responsibility, though, and should be rewarded since this person is in charge of training the others. Have a chat about it first and see whether or not they are interested.
The point is that, when your team has one of their peers to turn to, they will be a lot more attentive in terms of noticing an odd email request and asking for help won’t seem as intimidating. Now your level of cybersecurity will have increased a lot compared to how it would have been if they didn’t have a peer among them – and you can feel a lot more confident
Launch a mock attack
Finally, if you feel that the time is ready, a mock attack is exactly what your team needs in order to check if they’ve learned anything at all. You can talk to your cybersecurity professional about this, though, and they will perhaps even be able to help you out with launching the mock attack.
Make sure that the phishing attempt looks realistic and that it is released at a time when everyone is at their busiest and least likely to pay attention to every single email. Don’t expect everyone to get it right the first time, though, but use the results as an eye-opener in terms of how many repetitions they might need as well as how far they have come.
Perhaps you notice that more people than you expected understood the mock attack – or perhaps you end up feeling a bit more concerned. Nonetheless, it’s an important lesson and far better than experiencing this during an actual cyber attack.