Cybercriminals have mastered ways of taking advantage of humans’ psychological flaws, a primary reason why cyber attacks keep increasing by the day. It does not matter how secure your IT infrastructure is, if your employees are not well-trained in cybersecurity, they will be a worrying insider threat.
Here are five reasons why your employees are the weakest link for your company’s cybersecurity.
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Use of insecure networks
Most employees use their personal devices to access the company network as well as other insecure networks. The problem is that while connected to an insecure home or public network, hackers can easily intercept the login details used for company systems and gain access to your network.
For this reason, when outsourcing critical solutions such as financial controller services, you need to settle for a company like CFO Strategies LLC that adheres to cybersecurity best practices. You will also need to adopt improved Bring Your own Device (BYOD) policies if you want to keep your systems safe.
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Social engineering
Human emotions such as fear, greed, helpfulness, and a sense of urgency are easily abused by cybercriminals to accomplish their goals. Employees will easily trust emails, phone calls, text messages, and websites that look legitimate. This makes them fall victim to social engineering attacks such as;
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Baiting
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Water-holing
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Quid Pro Quo
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Malware
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Pretexting
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Poor password hygiene
It is normal for employees to use similar or easy-to-guess passwords for their personal and company accounts. Since hackers take time to know their potential victims, obtaining login credentials from employees who reuse their passwords is simple.
To avoid such scenarios, it is important to train your employees on good password hygiene and set up efficient two-factor authentication for your company accounts.
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Failure to keep up with system updates and upgrades
Employees hardly ever worry about the software or systems they are using as long as it is properly functioning. This leads to a lax in running updates and required upgrades, allowing hackers to take advantage of software vulnerabilities.
A lasting solution to this problem is to have your IT team regularly ensure all applications and systems your employees use are updated on time. This will keep your company safer as you will benefit from advanced security patches, fixes on software bugs, and enhanced software features for better functionality.
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Insecure data storage
How do your employees store critical company data? Do they use USB drives, external hard drives, or mobile phones to carry around sensitive data that can become a threat in the wrong hands?
If this is the case, then you need to refine the techniques for sharing and storing data. The most effective solution is to opt for secure cloud sharing and storage solutions to ensure your data-in-transit plus backed up data are not at risk.
Endnote
One of the biggest threats to business operations today is the potentially devastating impact of a cyberattack. Since the primary exposure to these attacks is most likely to be caused by employees, your best shot is to address your organization’s underbelly before it is too late.
