5 Ways Employees Can STOP Hackers
The majority of hacks aren’t against the big fortune 500 companies; they’re against small and mid-sized businesses. From stealing credit cards to important company records, these attacks can be crippling.
But do you ever wonder how hackers go about these intrusions?
And usually, this doesn’t involve actually hacking into anything. A lot of the time – approximately 60% according to the Harvard Business Review – an employee accidentally leaves the digital front door open.
Despite this alarming statistic, your employees can also be a great line of defense against cyber security attacks.
Here are 5 ways employees can help protect your company’s network from invaders:
Follow the Rules
Your first step to getting employees on board with cyber security is having a formal company internet policy specified for your business. Draw the line on what internet practices are prohibited within the office and on devices. If an employee is aware of the threat of cyber-attacks, they will always keep their eyes peeled for something out of the ordinary.
Ditching a Paper Trail
Look around your office, do your employees have any scraps of paper with passwords on it? Client files laying around? These paper trailers can be very risky exposure points for your organization.
Even if your office doesn’t see a lot of foot traffic, there are always some visitors or ancillary staff. A tidy desk can go a long way. Employees can stop hackers by eliminating any paper trails.
Locking Computers
Leaving a computer running unattended is a bad habit. I recommend that all employees lock their computers when they leave their desk for a meeting or lunch. Unlike logging out, a locked computer doesn’t shut down everything. Once a computer is locked, no one can access it unless they have the computer’s login information. However, at the end of the day, it is important that all employees log completely off their computer.
Having Strong Passwords
Passwords are at the core of an employee’s daily workflow–entering a password is often the first thing they do in a day. When training employees on policies and procedures, password security should be included. Password training should cover how to come up with a strong password. Weak passwords are just low hanging fruit in the eyes of hackers.
Not sure what a strong password is, check out our blog post on 10 Rules for Stronger Passwords.
Being a Skeptic
Can your employee spot a fake email? A scam? Let your employees be skeptical–in fact as an employer you should be encouraging this behavior. If your employee understands what phishing email looks like, they are less likely to reveal personal information to a hacker. Therefore, it is critical that all employees understand and identify phishing or fake emails.
For phishing email tips, please follow this link to the blog post I wrote about How to Tell if an Email is Fake.
Conclusion
Can your employees stop hackers? By making sure your employees understand these basic security tips now, you can save yourself from a lot of preventable headaches down the line.
If you need help creating a safe cyber security culture within your company, our NetGarde security service is here to help. Among other things, our NetGarde service offers employee cyber awareness training. To learn more, please follow this link: https://netgarde.com/