Why Is Cybersecurity Awareness In Workplace So Important?

The nature of cybersecurity is technical and as a result most of the companies leave it to their IT departments. It is a fact that the IT staff plays a very important role in ensuring that your company abides by the cybersecurity best practices. However, this does not mean that they will shoulder it on their own and there will be a lack of awareness in cyber security for the others. Cybersecurity awareness in workplace is important and participating in the cybersecurity best practices requires going beyond the IT department and becoming a part of your company’s culture. 

By following this, you will be protected against the cyberattacks and vulnerabilities. Additionally, you will be able to protect your business from the untold impacts of cybersecurity incidents. In this article we will concentrate on the reasons every workplace needs to adopt proper cybersecurity measures. 

Importance Of Cybersecurity Awareness In Workplace

Your organization’s cybersecurity is everyone’s business from the board members to the staff as cyber risks can come from any direction be it the board members or the staff. One single breach of data can affect the complete organization. If you properly identify the several ways in which a data breach could occur, you will understand that raising cybersecurity awareness in workplace is fundamental to the success of your organization. The key concerns of the cybersecurity includes:

• Unplanned Downtime

When a cyber attack occurs, it can hinder the operations of your company. Usually, large impacts like these can occur when the companies make use of the primitive technologies that are no longer supported by the latest security updates. These technologies are easier for the hackers to attack who are already aware of its vulnerabilities. Additionally, the IT staff will have to continuously work and patch the outdated technology. It is possible that the patching process can have inadvertent effects. 

However, the risk is not at all limited to old technology. Equally serious impacts from an attack can be seen via a simple and successful phishing scam. Such unplanned downtime affects the complete company and it costs you both money and time. 

• Loss Of Intellectual property & Personal Data

A basic reason why the organizations make use of the cybersecurity measures is to protect the sensitive information. This includes all the important things from the credit cards to the Social Security Numbers (SSNs) and the intellectual property that your company possesses. For instance, the manufacturers bear trade secrets that are relevant to their brands and offerings.

• Damaged Trust & Reputation

Another very important reason cybersecurity awareness in workplace is every one’s business is that your company exists online and you might be the next target. Cybersecurity can aid in the prevention of attacks that would otherwise damage your online reputation and make the customers question their trust in you. 

Nevertheless, when it comes to this particular risk, awareness goes beyond prevention. You must also have a plan for dealing with disaster recovery and online reputation management, if and when a data breach occurs. How you handle it entirely affects your customers’ trust. In such a case if you think that maintaining the reputation  of your business single handed isa task, then  you might take the help of any online reputation management company that can help you out with their team of experts. 

Individual Roles Of Employees & Board Members In Mitigating Cyber Threats

How to promote workplace safety? As soon as your company has started to create a cyber awareness culture at work, the next step is to understand the specific roles of the individuals in the organization and how to improve cybersecurity awareness.

• Boardroom Rules

The list of the cyber risks and concerts for the board seems to be endless. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the proper roles of a board member in cybersecurity awareness in workplace. 

• Prioritize: Direct the management to offer cybersecurity the appropriate attention that sets the tone for the complete organization. 

• Assess: Expect the organization to complete the formal assessment of the cybersecurity risks, making use of the outside experts and following the guidance from a proven risk-management framework.

• Monitor: Establishing the expectations that the board will be updated on the cybersecurity risk management on a regular basis.

• Executive Roles

The following are the executive roles that they need to perform.

• Organize: Assigning responsibility for coordinating cybersecurity efforts and building security into day-to-day processes.

• Communicate: Acting as a champion for the cybersecurity efforts of the organization. If executive management makes cybersecurity a priority then the whole company will take it seriously. 

• Prepare: The cybersecurity risk management programs remain incomplete if you do not possess plans to respond to an incident or data breach in your environment. Thus, you would also require to build an incident response team that might include a third-party forensic accountant. 

• Staff Roles 

The following are the important roles that the staff must follow.

• Training: The staff must attend all of the staff training events on the acceptable usage of the company resources and computers.

• Awareness: They need to pay attention to the news stories about cybercrime. Often knowing the latest attack method can alter an individual’s behavior and reduce risk. 

• Confirmation: They need to think before opening attachments or clicking on any links in an email especially when they recognize it coming from an unsolicited source. 

Conclusion

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Created on Mar 23rd 2022 07:43. Viewed 276 times.

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