When it comes to any form of cyber crime, human error is often the weakest link, and the easiest for hackers or cyber criminals to abuse. That’s why full employee training, and firm company IT policies are essential. But often, it can simply be bad habits that open the gaps for hackers to exploit. So what are these bad habits? Well, here at Creative Network Solutions, we are Preston’s leading IT support and network services experts. From secure remote access services to business VoIP, we are the team you can count on. And this is our guide to everything you should know about the employee habits that could risk your business security.
What are the employee habits that could risk your business security?
There are a number of bad habits that can leave your company open or susceptible to cyber crime. These habits include:
- Using weak passwords- weak passwords that are obvious to guess, or simply not secure, are one of the biggest risk factors for small to medium sized businesses. Weak passwords are easy for cyber criminals to guess and this can grant them access to important information and files, including accounting information. To prevent this, you should have a strong password policy that determines more than 14 characters, including uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and special symbols. And these passwords should be changed completely on a regular basis.
- Using the same passwords- your employees need to be sure to use different passwords for all websites and applications. This is essential, as data from one company can be stolen and sold on the dark web, including passwords. And if your password is the same as the stolen one, then hackers and criminals have easy access to your business accounts. One way to try and prevent this is to ensure staff training is fully comprehensive and regularly updated. You should also set up two factor authentication so that if a password does become compromised, access can still be blocked.
- Giving away too much information on social media- The amount of information your employees share on social media platforms could have a direct and negative impact on your company. This is because freely sharing information, especially personal content, can lead your employees open to targeted phishing scams. These use information that the criminals have gained about the person, to target them specifically, so that the emails and content are far more believable. And if a malicious email is opened at work, your whole network could be effected. This can not only mean a loss of business opportunity, and a loss of money, but it could also have a negative impact on your company reputation too. Staff training in regards to phishing is crucial, as this type of cyber crime is very prevalent right now, with some hackers even using Covid 19 as a way in.
For more information or advice about your network security, systems, or cloud email solutions, why not ask the experts today, here at Creative Network Solutions.