A recent report found that more than 90 percent of employees engage in at least one form of poor data security. And at least 23 percent of respondents admitted they would take data from their company if it would benefit them. Equally alarming is the fact that from new employees to C-level executives all expose organizations to security threats because of their bad security habits.
You might be wondering: “How do I fix that?” “What equipment or security tools should I buy?”
We recommend giving a higher priority to identify and fix internal risks rather than buying at first the most expensive security tools and new technologies to protect your company from external threats because the most alarming harms are withing organizations and that is where they need to be stopped.
Some mistakes employees make are hardly noticeable and all of them can be reduced to one: poor data security. Pay attention to the following habits, as these are some of the most important ones leading to security disasters:
Weak Passwords
Are you still using “12345” “password” or the name of the software/ app as a password? (e.g. “gmail2017”)
We all know how much of a pain it is to create and remember a new passwords, but there are ways to keep track of them and use one individual strong password for all your accounts*. When using one easy password to open everything you are creating an easy target for hackers and viruses. Your accounts can be easily compromised without you even noticing.
Have you used lastpass? give it a try, you can create, store and share passwords in a secure way.
Sharing Login Credentials
Employees often fall victims of convenience. When colleagues want to quickly and easily access certain information, businesses often rely on sharing credentials instead of creating a unique personal login for each user. Nearly 50 percent of respondents in a recent survey of office workers have shared credentials with multiple users. This leaves the company vulnerable to a data breach.
Our advise: Each employee should receive a checklist of the services and applications needed for her or his daily duties when joining the company . All departments should work together during onboarding to create a separate account for that user and software set.
Shadow IT
What is Shadow IT? It happens when employees download unauthorized applications to their work computers or mobile devices. It also can occur when they subscribe to Software as a Service (SaaS) applications without IT approval. Sounds familiar?
Many employees feel really attached to their work computers eight hours or more a day and start to think of that workstation as their own personal device. Their intentions may be harmless — perhaps they want to download a popular music-streaming application or a consumer file-sharing tool to store and coordinate information. But doing so without first consulting IT contributes to the problem and puts the company at risk.
Data breaches or cyber threats are not always preventable, but education and resources to break these bad habits are a great starting point to operate with more confidence knowing your data is protected.
Want more information? What about a full assessment to determine where we can start fixing these issues in your company? Contact us today for more details!