Importance of Employee CyberSecurity Training

The Society for Human Resources Management is on the cybersecurity bandwagon also. It has recommendations for business training of employees. One through 3 apply to all businesses, regardless of size.

1. Show everyone how to spot scams, especially phishing in all its variants. Top execs, including the CEO are important in this effort, because they are privy to sensitive business information.
2. Train employees consistently.
3. Use multi-factor authentication wherever possible. 

Only firms with resources and expertise should consider

      4. Penetration testing. This is hiring skilled hackers to try to penetrate the business system. It's a    demanding process and a lot can go wrong. SMBs may be better off hiring a security firm to work with them on identified risks.

Consider the importance of employee training: "Every time a company trains, its risk of falling prey to a successful phishing attack decreases by 20 percent, according to Sharon Nelson, attorney and president of cybersecurity firm Sensei Enterprises Inc. in Fairfax, Va."

TechRepublic says, "People are the largest security vulnerability in any organization." Keeping them engaged in cybersecurity protection, however, is no small task. The post offers suggestions for keeping the subject vibrant. 

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Free Cybersecurity Tools

I found this set of mobile security guidelines on twitter. They are excellent for businesses as well as for individuals.

It led me to the site of KnowBe4, a cybersecurity firm. There I found a set of free tools that can be used to assess specific cyber risks.

https://www.knowbe4.com/

Some risks can be mitigated by cybersecurity training--phishing  (and smishing and vishing!) is high up on that list--awareness of the danger is key. Some may require paid services. The point is to determine where your business is vulnerable before making investments in cybersecurity.

A hint to the wise: if I found these free tools on one try; there are undoubtedly more out there. Don't hesitate to broaden the search and become well-versed in the nature of cyber risks and how your firm can deal with them.

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How Small Businesses Can Improve Cybersecurity

 Small and medium-sized businesses have as much to loose, maybe more, from gaps in their cyber defenses, as this chart in a report from the Better Business Bureaus shows. Forbes says that "approximately half of small businesses that have a cyber attack go out of business within six months."

https://go.bbb.org/2P18YP9

The dark blue bar in the chart is BBB Accredited Businesses and they identified themselves as being higher on overall adoption of cybersecurity measures than others.The upper left quadrant of the chart shows that two methods with high effectiveness are under-adopted--safer data storage and multi-factor identification.

The Forbes article goes on to make good recommendations:

1. Establish a cybersecurity policy and train employees in use of its elements
2. Update computers including employee mobile devices
3. Create backups for important data
4. Limit employee access to data
5. Secure the business WiFi network

Small business owners have a lot to do, but they should not ignore the importance of good cybersecurity. It's good news that the Forbes recommendations are more common sense than costly!

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Week 3 of NCSAW Focuses on Safety at Work

We all have a job to do when it comes to cybersecurity.

Use this link from the Stay Safe Online site to get business resources that are especially useful to the small business person.

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