Why It’s Important To Educate Your Staff About Cyber Security

These days, one of the most popular ways for attackers to gain unauthorised access to a web server or system is to use social engineering. This is essentially tricking people into handing over credentials such as login passwords and usernames. These can typically involve phishing scams that trick people into entering their details into a fake website. However, it could also involve direct contact with the victim, fooling them into thinking that they’re somebody else.

Sadly, these types of scams are very common these days. You only have to take a look at recent mobile cybersecurity stats to see the shocking figures (more information here). As such, it’s extremely important to educate your staff about cyber security in order to protect your business.

Staff are often the easiest vulnerability to exploit

We hear a lot about vulnerabilities in software and networks, but it’s not often that we consider people themselves to be the vulnerability. Many employees have access to the various systems and confidential data that a company might store. For instance, a salesperson in your company might have access to the personal information of their contacts. If they were to accidentally leak their password or have it stolen through social engineering, then the attacker could have unfiltered access to a lot of customer data.

This is much worse than attackers figuring out some passwords and usernames for a website login. While they can do a little damage by messing with your website, the real problem comes when they start taking your confidential data and exploiting it for their personal gain. Whether they go on to sell your private data or if they decide to hold it ransom, you’re going to end up paying a hefty fine. It could also do heavy damage to your reputation, especially if you’re just a growing business that is trying hard to keep a good relationship with its audience.

Work with a cyber security company when possible

If you’re a relatively small business or don’t have a tech department, then you may need to think about using a service like I3 Secure to help secure your business and educate your staff on what to do in certain situations. This can help teach your staff good practices when using the internet, and it’ll also make them more aware of the potential scams and attacks that could be used against them.

Educating your staff like this is one of the best ways to protect your business. Even though many businesses have strong cyber security defences, the weakest link is perhaps your employees themselves. All it takes is for a senior member of staff to accidentally reveal your password and chaos will ensue. Your data will be stolen, backdoors will be created to make it easier to penetrate your systems, and you may end up facing a nasty lawsuit if you fail to protect your customers.

So whether you’re looking to protect your small business or defend a growing company against cyber threats, make sure you place a priority on educating your staff as much as possible. They can be easy to exploit if they’re not taught about cyber security measures, and attackers these days purposely target staff because they know that they’re likely to be untrained.