Cyber security is something companies have to take seriously these days, whether they are big or small. While the blame is always on those trying to do harm, companies can do damage to their security with bad practices. Security vulnerabilities within a company can make it easier for hackers to get inside and to do damage.
Here are the security vulnerabilities that can damage a company.
Having a no-mistake work environment
The big problem for companies is that they want to create this ‘no mistakes’ environment when it comes to security. The reality is that mistakes do happen and a company must prepare for the ‘when’ rather than the ‘if’.
Companies must have a contingency plan in place for all sorts of eventualities and security issues. There must be a procedure for employees forgetting company products in public, employees clicking a malware link online, employees sending sensitive information to the wrong person and so on. If you prepare for these, you can limit the problems these mistakes can cause. Many companies have built their brand while keeping many factors and campaign in similar run to be prepared if some attack happened.
Preparing safety features only for external attacks
Companies often have security analysts or people in charge of looking for problems. The problem is that the focus is often on external threats and problems. What this means is that software might not flag internal problems in use — such as entering the wrong password or keeping an account logged in for too long.
It’s important to start paying attention to what your software and employee behaviour is showing. Your security personnel and IT people need to keep looking for those internal problems more and understand that security problems don’t just happen when someone is trying to break into your system.
Thinking all employees are good
The HR shouldn’t treat employees like criminals or possible cyber hackers but it must learn to understand that not everyone has good intention. Although rare, some employees don’t want good things for their employers — often due to some personal mistreatment or grudge.
You have to trust your employees but not blindly. Monitoring employee behaviour and listening to their job satisfaction can be important tools in fighting against mutiny and internal cyber attack.
Forgetting to train the employees
While there are occasions when the employees might intentionally hurt a company, more often the issues are mistakes. Although these mistakes are going to happen at some point, you should still try to control them with education. Employees need to be trained to keep data safe and to navigate software and the internet safely. You can’t just expect everyone to understand why complicated passwords are necessary — you have to explain this to your employees.
Therefore, it’s important for the company to launch a proper safety training course. This should teach the employee about the importance of certain safety steps and procedures as well as show how to act in case things do go wrong.
Using software without proper security features
It’s also crucial to adopt software with the most rigorous security features. Companies often pay attention to security when it comes to software that deals with financial information or customer details but not necessarily in the HR department. However, small business HR software should be picked with the same standard of security features as your other software — it should state-of-the-art functionalities.
An advanced small business HR software will provide many benefits to a company, not least in terms of security. Having employee data safe prevents hackers from targeting your employees and using the information to target other vulnerabilities within the system. For example, hijacked identities can be a big security problem and it’s important to use the correct small business HR software to keep employee data secure.
Being in the dark about your system
Above all, it’s important to get a good idea of your system. Companies often fall victim to cyber attacks because they didn’t know what kind of protection they have against specific threats. You must be aware of your security system and infrastructure so that you can analyse your system and notice the anomalies better.
Your focus should be on understanding your data and the employees. That means knowing your most valuable assets, your weakest assets and the different ways your data could be accessed or misused. This allows you to strengthen your defence and focus on maintaining strong security.
In addition, you have to pay attention to your employees and the way they use and access data. Monitoring employee behaviour can be highly effective because most people will have certain habits that make predicting mistakes easier. Of course, you also have to be aware of which employees pose a higher risk in terms of their access to the valuable data and so on.
You should be able to know what threats you’re facing, what are the strengths of the company’s security system and the obvious points of improvement. When you focus on this and bring in the analysis of employee use of data and technology, you will find it easier to control security threats.
Don’t forget to fix the internal issues
In the world of big threats, companies have to pay a lot of attention in finding the right tools to combat the problems. While it’s important to keep looking out of the window and see what’s happening outside, companies must also keep the house in check internally. If you don’t pay attention to the vulnerabilities inside the company, you increase the risk of cyber attacks.
The above are the most common issues companies have in terms of internal security. By focusing on these points, your company can better protect itself against cybercrime and make sure the risk of a breach is