As the owner or manager of a company, you entrust your team leaders to handle a number of important responsibilities to ensure smooth daily operations. One of those responsibilities should be cybersecurity. It’s essential to keep sensitive company data safe from hackers. Not only that, but viruses and malware still pose a very real threat. And today’s privacy laws and regulations demand that you be protective of customer data, as well.
If your team leaders are already aware of the threat cyber criminals pose, kudos to them. But are they as informed as they should be? And what’s more, how do you know the protection they have put in place is sufficient? Are your leaders fully aware of all the important cybersecurity facts they need to know to protect the business?
While technology has certainly facilitated the way we do business, it has also paved the way for hackers and digital thieves to take advantage of the vulnerabilities in your network. All that company data—data you rely on day in, day out to do business—is at risk. Here are a couple stats to help you understand the magnitude of the issue:
- According to Infosecurity Magazine, “almost 1.4 billion records were exposed in 686 breaches reported between Jan. 1 and March 31 this year.”
- According to the Verizon 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, there were over 2,000 confirmed data breaches and over 53,000 recorded incidents of cyber attack.
That’s why it’s important that company leaders stay well informed on a number of important cybersecurity facts. Equipped with this important knowledge, they can better combat and protect your data from the growing environment of cyberthreats.
Cybersecurity fact #1:
Cybersecurity measures often fail due to human error
This is one of the most important cybersecurity facts. Cybercriminals are pretty savvy individuals. They rely on the negligence and lack of knowledge of employees in a business to enable them to gain entry into the network or infect a computer.
Consider the damage a single employee can do. Is everyone in your office safe when browsing the internet and downloading files? Do your team leaders know how to avoid falling for spear phishing scams? Does everyone use secure passwords?
A basic education in keeping the company safe is critical, and that starts with your leadership team. Make sure they know these cybersecurity facts.
Cybersecurity fact #2:
Cybercriminals are always seeking to exploit loopholes in virus protection application
The latest version of that virus protection software you’ve installed might not stop a virus or malware developed the very next day. That’s because hackers can quickly find ways to breach virus protection software.
To combat this, software companies quickly and consistently release updates to combat new threats. But you often have to install these updates manually. In the interim, malware, spyware, or a virus could slip through.
Your IT department may take care of all relevant updates. But if policy requires the end-user to update their own machine, make sure your leaders under stand the importance of these updates.
Cybersecurity fact #3:
Offsite backups through the cloud can help protect your data
If you’ve become infected with malware, or worse yet, ransomware, then your data may become corrupted or even lost. Unless, of course, you have a backup.
But it’s possible that local backups are compromised, too. That’s why many companies utilize cloud computing and cloud-based data backup services, where data is backed up to a secure, off-site location.
While it may not change anything about how your team leaders do their day-to-day jobs, make sure they understand the importance of backups. A better understanding of the value of the data they work with will inevitably result in greater care to protect that data.
Cybersecurity fact #4:
The most common method that cyber criminals use is email
As mentioned above, employees can unknowingly click on a link in an email or download an attached file without realizing that they have just allowed malware or spyware to be installed on their system.
Team leaders must teach employees to be ever vigilant when visiting websites and downloading files, and especially when clicking on links in email. They must be taught to recognize the signs of a possible scam or fake website. No one should every download any files they aren’t 100% sure about.
Cybersecurity facts matter
Everyone in the organization needs to take cybersecurity very seriously, not just team leaders. But for many companies, a well-educated staff starts with fully-informed team leaders.
After all, it only takes one wrong click to invite a cybercriminal into your system.