People are without a doubt the greatest asset of any company. Most likely, at some point in your career, you may have come across that phrase by now. After all, they are the people who plan and produce the products and also buy and use these solutions. But is the same reasoning valid today for information security, with the Digital Era advancing rapidly in companies?

The answer is yes. There is no point in devising innovative strategies without the active participation of those who work in day-to-day operations. It’s not by chance that according to international research, over half of the cases of data leakage or theft begin with human failure, either in using a tool incorrectly or due to negligence during the most routine decision making.

This is exactly why it is so important for your company to think about how to raise awareness and engage teams in a true protection-oriented culture. Everyone is part of this effort to care for the data. In other words, people need to be the main asset of your cyber security plan as well.

This is explained by two reasons: the first is that individual actions actually generate most of the gaps and vulnerabilities of a day-to-day operation. Imagine, for example, how often you’ve left your Facebook account logged on or how many personal devices are connected daily to your company’s Wi-Fi. These “oversights” can be potential factors for an invasion.

The second reason to focus on establishing an organizational culture geared towards digital security is that cybercriminals are lurking,  just waiting for these careless actions from their team. The lack of knowledge on the subject, for example, can cause employees to act negligently with the transfer of data. And it would not be their fault: the company needs to offer knowledge so that the employees know that all their actions are, important for the maintenance of information security.

This includes, among other things, structures that help prevent and anticipate threats, technologies that allow to remove dubious sources of content, tools that examine and eliminate viruses or any malicious agent, and also training that shows why it is essential that employees act actively to avoid clicking on suspicious links and understand the importance of keeping antivirus and official applications in order.

Sometimes one needs to show that people are at risk. And teach them how they can protect themselves and help ensure collective security. Research indicates that almost two thirds of fraud attempts come from malicious phishing actions. Knowing how to recognize the risks – that can come, for example, in WhatsApp messages and emails – is the first step towards building a safer and more protection-oriented environment as a whole.

Of course, information security in times of hyper connection is a continuous and endless demand. You will never be 100% protected, but understanding this can be a real advantage to stay alert. Building an organizational culture attentive to cyber security certainly includes this lesson, placing data protection as an inherent and intrinsic demand to the advancement of the operation.

This process combines technical training, employee and service provider training and awareness, and an environment really prepared to keep the structure safe. Investing in technology, better processes and data management are, therefore, issues that should also be on the leaders’ priority list. After all, we are talking about a market that continues to evolve – for good and evil.

Educating and engaging employees in this purpose and ensuring that everyone works in accordance with an organizational culture better suited to the new times are vital actions to prepare organizations in terms of information security. Furthermore, it will help build a solid position for the future.

Protecting the data of a corporation is not the sole task of a team or leader. The company’s management needs to prepare a clear and objective policy, with the mixture of high performance systems and a team aware of its role. However, the success of this initiative will depend on uniting all efforts with people and technology cooperating for the benefit of the organization.

 

 

With more than 5,000 clients, Blockbit is one of the leading manufacturers of cybersecurity solutions, empowering businesses to protect themselves against a wide range of threats, vulnerabilities, and cyberattacks, whether internal or external, generic or specific.