Primary takeaways of this article:
- Mitigating security risks for your organization should take a layered approach to avoid cybersecurity threats
- Your end users = your outermost security perimeter
- Obtain a benchmark of your user IT Security Awareness
- Continuously Educate all users
- Establish standards
- Educating new hires
- Establish a mandatory IT Security Awareness training that all new hires perform
- Establish password security:
- Establish how users store, share and manage passwords
- Establish best practices
- The do’s and don’ts
Bad cybersecurity practices are prevalent for most businesses. Although these actions might seem harmless, they are very dangerous and can put your company’s data at risk.
Cybercriminals are always on the prowl looking for sensitive data to steal and corporate networks to infiltrate. Any lack of cyber vigilance will provide them with the opportunity to wreak havoc. This article will discuss harmful cybersecurity practices that can lead to security disruptions and the steps you can take to avoid them. Let’s get right to it, shall we?
Recycling Passwords
Reusing passwords for different accounts is commonplace as most people prefer not to memorize unique passwords for every new account. Also, there is the risk of getting locked out of your account due to forgetting your password. However, recycling passwords is an illustration of bad password management as it is easy for hackers to get into all your accounts at once if they have your login details.
Even though regularly changing your passwords helps, you must enable multi-factor authentication to provide an extra security layer. Users need to use other factors to verify their passwords using this process. However, with a password manager that creates, stores, and recovers distinct passwords from an encoded database, you don’t need to worry about cybercriminals. All you need to do is generate one master password for the manager, and you will be able to log into all your accounts automatically. You can also use this password manager to protect the corporate accounts of your employees.
Excessive Information Sharing
Many people share too much personal and corporate information on social media, and this is a bad habit, as you are giving your information and that of your colleagues freely to cybercriminals. By sharing your information online, you make it easy for cyber attackers to carry out targeted phishing attacks on you and your organization.
To prevent security breaches caused by this, you should stop sharing your information on social media, both personal and corporate. You should carry out regular security training to teach your employee’s different ways to safeguard themselves and the organization from cyber threats.
Browser Extensions Installation
Browser extensions are harmful as they monitor and obtain all your online activity once you install them. These extensions track the login details and the pages you visit, making them an easy target for cybercriminals to harvest and infiltrate your corporate data and network. You should avoid installing browser extensions, but if they are crucial to your operations, vet all browser extensions carefully before installing and using them. Use a trusted endpoint detection and response solution to alert you of any suspicious activities or threats in your network.
Using Personal Devices on Your Corporate Network
Despite the convenience and productivity using your personal devices for work gives, multiple risks come with it. Connecting your personal devices to your corporate networks creates entryways to your business assets that can be exploited by cybercriminals. It is best you use your work-related systems and corporate devices on your corporate network.
However, if you must use your personal tools, you must install trusted security applications and encryptions to access sensitive business data. To avoid a security breach, you can use a mobile device management solution to track and manage all the mobile devices linked to your corporate network.
Lack of Updates
When you put off updates or upgrades, you leave your device vulnerable to security disputes, and cybercriminals can reverse-engineer patch updates to enable them to exploit unpatched devices. Regularly updating your device will ensure that your systems remain protected against recent attacks, and they usually come with performance improvements as well.
Protecting Your Business from Security Breaches
The best way to protect your organization from cybercriminals is by conveying and implementing your cybersecurity policies to your employees. This way, they can be aware of the right way to handle company data and systems. Plus, regular security training help employees stay abreast of ways to protect themselves against emerging security threats.
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