In the battlefield of cybersecurity attacks, it pays to have an action plan in place. A whopping 1,579 data breaches were publicly disclosed during 2017, according to a white paper published recently by CompliancePoint. The threats are real and alarming. But what step should you take to mitigate risks and allow your business to thrive? There are no hard and fast rules, but there are some fairly simple practices you implement without having to spend a lot of money.
Strong Password Protection
It seems like such a no-brainer—choosing a password that’s hard to crack. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen, as stolen or weak passwords were responsible for 80 percent of hacking-related breaches in 2017. For this reason, be sure that you implement strong password policies company wide, like requiring employees to change passwords every 90 days or so. Even something as simple adding a character to a password makes it harder to hack; and mathematically speaking, the more characters the better: a 6-character password has 300 million possibilities, while an 8-character password has 200 billion possibilities.
Employees’ cellphones should be protected with applications like Ping I.D. or RSA Secure I.D. that provide one-time passwords on employees’ cellphones.
Portable Media Protection
Flash drives, CD and other media that contains important data is susceptible to loss and theft, so be sure to make these element a part of your overall security awareness program. This means making employees responsible for any personal media they use, and setting specific usage parameters. You can start by limiting the use of removable media except when approved by the chief IT officer and teaching employees to report missing media immediately.
Knowledge is Power
If employees aren’t aware of the security risks, they are unlikely to change their habits. Hold company-wide training sessions to impart the importance of data protection and to introduce new policies and guidelines. By clearly understanding the objective of a company’s Security Awareness Program, employees will know exactly what to do and what not to do to protect the business. Working together as a team will instill a sense of ownership and pride.
Lastly, a Security Awareness Program can save money and time. According to the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the average global cost of a single record breach is $200. There’s also the hidden cost of time lost to fix and recover the data.
A Security Awareness Program creates a feeling of unity within the company, helps employees navigate emails and the Internet with confidence, and saves the company from losing money and valuable time.
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