All team efforts are in vain when one of the employees failed to protect their data. Inadvertent declassification of information can cause great damage to the company, and the most unpleasant: the employee who caused the disaster may not be aware of his guilt. This suggests that many do not understand personal responsibility, therefore, cybersecurity training should be on a par with training on service standards and increasing sales.
Creating a safety culture in the company is a step-by-step strategy, which, however, can be implemented quite quickly.
At the first stage, it is necessary to determine the structure of the company’s information systems. When creating it, it is important:
- Invite professionals who professionally segment and configure the internal network.
- Separate access zones to information and minimize flows of uncontrolled interactions between levels. Many “cut off” network access for units that deal with confidential company data.
- It’s better to pay for quality software than to regularly monitor where the information is leaking.
- Conclude agreements with employees, according to which they protect client databases.
At the second stage, a mechanism for assessing current risks is created. Key points are reviewed at every collaboration with a third party. Usually this concerns the issues of connecting new video surveillance systems, launching mobile applications, updating programs for financial statements – in general, we are talking about all the cases when a company is forced to provide the service provider access to its IT system.
The third stage concerns staff training, and you need to start from a higher level. Any boss should be aware of the value of information and show by his own example how he adheres to rules designed for everyone. Specialists are often invited to study, but the IT department can do this. Despite the seemingly simplicity of the mechanisms, training should be carried out regularly. Repetition contributes to understanding, in addition, the staff is updated periodically.
What do employees teach?
- Confidentiality of data – that no one should gain access to employee information;
- Immunity – as a key aspect of security. Employees are explained that in order to make changes to the system, coordination and a primary understanding of what the consequences may be;
- Accessibility – on how to properly provide access to colleagues and clients if necessary.
The training requested from the coach should be correlated with the specifics of the enterprise and the preparedness of the employees. It’s one thing to explain how to identify and overcome hacker attacks, and another is to train employees not to leave passwords written on a piece of notepad on the desktop. The same goes for the item on the availability of information. Experienced professionals who have been working with clients for several years will ask more questions than employees of divisions who do not contact consumers.
In fact, training is the foundation of computer and network literacy. Experts say that attention should be paid to this topic as soon as possible, because the commercialization of the Internet is only growing.