Staying Safe Online: Building a Safe Online Culture for You

Everybody wants security. Whether for business, health, or finances - security should be an essential part of your life. But when it comes to business, what is the best way to ensure security, especially when it comes to your data?

What are your Business Security Threats?

One of the top priorities for any business is to secure itself from a cyber attack. In recent years advanced cyber attacks have become more complex and successful than before. Even the biggest business has faced problems such as Target, Samsung, and even the city of Atlanta have all been successfully attacked.

Attacks come in several different forms. Sometimes they can be malware attacks that steal data or freeze your system. This can be used to ransom your data for money to unleash the frozen information. 

Sometimes attacks come in the form of stealing customer data or other sensitive business operations. Sometimes attackers will just bring your whole network down.

These attacks can be quite sophisticated, and if even billion-dollar businesses are attacked then what can we do?

The answer is more obvious than you may think.

Building Awareness as a Culture

The best way to avoid a security breach is to help people identify the dangers. There is a misconception that small businesses will not be safe because not even big businesses can keep themselves secure.

But the reality is that it only takes one mistake to allow someone into your network. The vast majority of cyber attacks begin with a phishing attempt, not some Hollywood-level hacking scheme.

Phishing is incredibly common, but not enough people know exactly what to watch out for. If you can identify common phishing tactics then it’s easier to avoid the common traps.

This is why it’s so important to build awareness as a culture.

This is also where small and medium-sized businesses can actually have a leg up on the large corporations.

Think of this: There is a small business with 20 employees and a company like Target. Target has thousands of people working for it, which means thousands of opportunities to let a mistake happen.

The company with 20 employees can monitor how they act online, and help create a culture that everyone can follow. You can provide easy training and constantly create protocols so that everyone is operating safely.

While organizations like Target do put those same goals in place, it is naturally more difficult to get thousands of people to work perfectly, than just a small team of 20.

This is why better technology is not always the answer to better cybersecurity. The real way to protect your business is to build it into your culture.

How to Build Online Awareness

Any millennial will roll their eyes when they start to hear about online awareness. However none of us know it all, and attacks are always changing.

Going over phishing basics is a great place to start. This can help workers identify the common things to look out for when they are working online. You can even provide additional training with updated tactics, as cybercriminals are always changing their attack patterns. Not everything is as easy to spot as the Nigerian Prince.

Another great thing to do is to teach about the systems that you have integrated into your network and explain why they are important. People are more likely to use firewalls, and VPN networks correctly if they understand what they are actually doing.

A third option is to hire a technology company like a managed services team to access your business and find possible threats. These can then be communicated back to your team to sure up any danger zones, and implement new methods to stay safe online.

Avoiding a cyber-attack needs to be on the mind of every business owner. But staying safe does not have to be a costly effort. If you focus on building cyber awareness into your business culture, then you will be on the right path to successful online safety. Contact us today to help with your cybersecurity needs.