With every passing year the need for hardcopy paperwork and physical presence in the office environment is becoming less and less of requirement. The trajectory in which the world of work is heading is from the comfort of oneโs home or from anywhere around the world without setting foot in the country your office is based. This has sort of been fast tracked with the global pandemic almost forcing businesses to adapt to remote working where they can, and thus the dynamics of the global business landscape has changed over the past year. With more people working remotely, means more people in the digital stratosphere, and therefore more personal and critical information being shared daily between businesses and individuals. The need for cybersecurity has never been more important than it is right now, and businesses are starting to invest much more money into their securing their digital assets as working online becomes habitual to people.
However, having a MSS and MDR service provider for your business can become a tedious task if employees are not educated on the basics of how to protect themselves online โ it can essentially make your cybersecurity service provider a bit pointless if employees are consistently inviting cyber threats. Itโs important to understand the risks outside the control of your service provider, so that they can give you the full value of protection you require of them.
Itโs important to understand that the user/employee still have all the power initially in letting a potential attacker into the business. Whether that be clicking on suspicious links or emails and using company credentials without thinking before they click. Cybercriminals can take advantage of that habitual online working routine of employees and front themselves as an insider. Therefore, itโs of critical importance that employees understand first and foremost the basics of protecting themselves online:
- Querying emails and or links they receive to make sure if they are from a trusted source.
- Being cognisant whenever dealing with critical information online.
- Using strong passwords or better multi factor authentication as well as regularly changing passwords when required.
- Avoid sharing personal or company information outside the work environment.
- Protecting your own personal information.
- One that often gets overlooked is fellow work colleagues who may have malicious intentions. So, itโs also important to be wary about simply sharing information with work colleagues if you are unsure of their intentions with it.
Most cyber-attacks start at the user because an individual or employee are not aware of the signs of a potential threat, and it makes life for these attackers easy because they are provided with the tools rather than trying to manufacture the tools themselves. Whatโs even worse is there is no way of telling initially if you have been compromised because the attacks are very well orchestrated and disguised โ and by then itโs often too late.
However, following these points means that cybercriminals must resort to extreme measures to harm a business and thatโs where your cyber security partner steps in to prevent and detect cyber incidents. Thus, the threat can be tackled before any harm is done and future improvements can be made to ensure the attacker is stifled in their attempts โ and even if the attacker manages to infiltrate the organisation the damage can be mitigated through early detection of the cyber incident.
As simple as these points are, cybercriminals still find exceptional success in tricking people with the basics with very little effort. Therefore, the importance of basic user education on how to protect themselves online is essential for any organisation with or without a cybersecurity provider, because it can go a long way to protecting valuable assets. Even with a cybersecurity provider, employees need to understand that they still canโt afford to be lackadaisical and perform the same practices as if they did not have someone protecting them.