Becoming Cybersavvy: Empowering Your Team as the Last Line of Defense from Cyberattacks.
If you haven’t heard the term “Cybersecurity” or heard about a massive data breach somewhere, then you might be one of the few living your best life on a remote tropical island paradise. For the rest of us, knowing someone who has been hacked is like playing “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” Without fail, you know or have heard of a grandma, grandpa, mom, dad or co-worker who fell for an email scam, clicked on the link to dispute a charge on their credit card only to find out they have inadvertently downloaded malware, a virus or given a hacker access to their accounts. Cyberattacks are a constant daily reality in our ever-growing digital world. Scam emails, malware downloads, ransomware and data breaches are all too pervasive. Dealing with the constant onslaught of cyberattacks is becoming the new normal and it is important, if not absolutely imperative, for your business and each and every team member to become cybersavvy.
To be quite clear, in today’s reality, it is not a matter of if a cyberattack happens, it is a matter of when. Make no mistake, attempts to hack business systems are happening daily and keeping your head in the proverbial sand or thinking that it could never happen to you is unrealistic and unwise for your business longevity.
What does being cybersavvy mean? A cybersavvy employee simply is an employee who has the knowledge and skills to stay safe online, who has a solid understanding of cybersecurity and implements daily safety measures to keep business networks and information safe and secure. Security breaches can cripple a business and the last line of defense for any business is its employees. It is a well-known fact of doing business that employee error is the reason many cyberthreats get introduced to a business network. A lack of employee cybersecurity awareness is usually the culprit, whether it is general naivete to hacking scams, weak password security or failing to utilize cybersecurity measures such as multi-factor authentication to name a few.
Cybersecurity for any business must be discussed in protective layers. Every layer you add, increases the likelihood you will find success in keeping systems safe and secure. This article will discuss the final layer of cybersecurity, and arguably the most important layer, which is a well-trained cybersavvy team of employees.
Spending the time to train a team of cybersavvy employees is crucial to any business’ cybersecurity measures. This training must include recognizing common threats such as scam emails, text messages, phone calls and other forms of communication referred to as “phishing.” Additionally, training in online internet safety, critical thinking, digital literacy, privacy awareness, good software updating habits and strong password management will all keep your team safer online.
A significant portion of cyberattacks come through employee email. While having a good email filter is crucial, some phishing email still may hit your inbox. Here are some essential steps to identifying a phishing email. Be wary of:
- Emails with unfamiliar domain names, addresses that are familiar but are misspelled or missing letters;
- Any email containing a link;
- Coworkers asking for things involving gift cards, invoices and/or money;
- Any request asking to update direct deposit account information;
- Vendors and/or customers asking to change banking and payment information;
- Emails with attachments from unexpected sources;
- Password reset and account verification requests;
- Any email with an “urgent” request/call to action or information for ransom;
- Any email with misspelled words or grammatical errors;
- Even if you recognize the sender, that sender’s email could be hacked, so if there are requests involving money or sensitive information, verify the email with a known phone number. Do not call any numbers listed in the suspect email as cybercriminals will have real people answering fake phone numbers.
Advantage IT Services, LLC, has been serving businesses of Southern Nevada and Tri-Cities Washington for over 16 years. We take pride in making sure our clients implement all the crucial layers of cybersecurity, especially the final layer, which is providing extensive cybersecurity training for team members. Advantage IT Services, LLC can also provide test phishing email campaigns that will identify areas of weakness as well as the need for additional or ongoing training. Imagine a partnership with expert IT engineers who not only prevent technology downtime, but also actively work to eliminate inefficiency, maximize productivity, and bolster profitability. Advantage IT Services, LLC is not just a service provider, it’s an experience that ensures your data remains secure while paving the way for seamless business operations. Welcome to a realm where proactive solutions redefine the Advantage in IT services.
If you are interested in receiving more information about our services or would like to see if our solutions align with your business needs, lets have a 5 minute chat – click here to schedule a meeting.
