Jan, 2016 : Do Employees Pose the Largest Threat to Cybersecurity?

📅 January 29, 2016 - Have you considered whether your employees are actually a bit of a cybersecurity threat to your company? How could your own team be a threat exactly? While most companies are focused on hacker groups getting into their cyber system, some businesses are realizing that the real threat is within their own organization.

Take note from how federal agencies look at their own employees and insiders for the real threat to cybersecurity and start doing that in your own company. While your staff may have the best intentions, sometimes employees are not well educated on things that could be risking your cybersecurity. It's time to improve their knowledge on the severity of this issue and teach them how to avoid a security breath. Take a look at the ways employees become a cybersecurity threat.

What are the facts?

You may not have known that studies have shown that the biggest threat to security is poorly trained or careless insiders. A company called SolarWinds is an IT company that did a survey a couple of years ago to see how serious digital security threats were in the military and federal government. They claimed that data leakage and theft were what 30% of survey responders said was the largest liability and 40% of breaches were due to careless or poorly trained insiders.

In fact, after a Stroz Friedberg studied senior management with one company, it was found that over half of senior managers admitted to sending sensitive data to the wrong address. Over half even admitted to taking files from the company home with them after leaving a position which sounds like a nightmare to the company whose files could now be with a competitor.

Why is the risk so bad?

It's important to understand how the risk is such a problem with employees. In most cases, the situation isn't intentional. Companies are making cuts and can't always afford to increase security with so many other priorities. In many cases, employees don't even know the basics to setting up their own cybersecurity measures and don't fully grasp how online environments work.

What to do

With technology advancing, it's important that your company knows if their software is outdated, how to maintain security on a daily basis, and to make sure time is being spent handling the problem. Education is really important to being effective in a security boost and employees should understand the severity of the confidentiality behind company files.

Make sure you have a security staff or department that can train your team on regular maintenance and that can work on always staying up-to-date on security measures. Always record who logs in or out of your system in case anyone appears to be a security threat and be sure to notice if someone deletes or alters information. Have policies in place to make sure employees understand your expectations. Always keep record of stole or lost assets and take inventory of your tech equipment.

The last thing you want to deal with is stolen information that will require you to inform your customers or compromised data. It will cost you to notify customers and it may cost you your loyal clientele. You could spend thousands to millions on recovery of a cyber-attack too.

Even if it feels there's simply no time during the week to focus on security measures, think of what could happen and how it would affect your customer base. Start beefing up security, hire a team to help you out, and educate your team on what they should be doing to stay protected. Do all you can to keep your company secure on a regular basis.