Even the smallest businesses are at risk of cybersecurity threats. As a business owner, it’s important to stay vigilant! Understanding your cybersecurity risk and keeping your employees educated is critical for avoiding disasters like data breaches and ransomware attacks. No matter what steps you take to lock down your business against cyber threats, your employees will still be the weakest link in your cybersecurity plan. Here’s how to empower your workers to avoid internet scams that could jeopardize your business.
Building a Disaster Recovery Plan
Although being proactive about cybersecurity is important, so is developing a solid recovery plan in the event that a cyberattack gets through your defenses. The sooner you can restore your data after a cyber threat, the faster you can get your business back up and running. A disaster recovery plan will also allow you to protect your customers, save money on recovery efforts, and avoid giving in to the demands of ransomware attacks.
Know that there’s a lot of detail that goes into a good business recovery plan. Use a template to generate a monthly planner in order to stay organized and ensure that no important detail falls through the cracks. More than just planning your days, weeks, or months, you can also make use of sticky notes and add visual elements to represent or highlight crucial aspects of your recovery plan.
Common Internet Scams
Most cyber criminals gain access to business networks through common internet scams. Criminals often target employees of businesses they want to hack. Employees of small businesses, in particular, are typically uneducated on cybersecurity best practices and have a harder time spotting online scams. Hackers often target employees in charge of financial accounts, but they can also gain access to your business through other departments as well.
Make a point of teaching everyone on your team about all the ways in which they could put your company at risk of a cyberattack. Phishing attacks, for example, are some of the most common internet scams. Traliant recommends showing your employees how to spot phishing emails and texts. Phishing emails often appear to be from a legitimate sender but are designed to trick people into giving up sensitive information like passwords, bank information, and credit card numbers.
Some other scams commonly targeting small businesses include office supply scams, directory scams, false invoices, and utility imposter scams. Almost all of these scams involve a hacker who is attempting to impersonate a person or company your employees will recognize, such as a banking professional, utility company, or office supplier.
Protecting the Seniors on Your Team
Sadly, seniors are the most frequent targets of online scams. Cybercriminals often target seniors because they tend to be more trusting and easier to manipulate compared with younger people. If you have any seniors in your workforce, make sure they receive special cybersecurity training. You may even be able to direct them towards some free fraud prevention classes for seniors online or at your public library.
How to Get Your Employees to Care
It’s clear that your employees play a critical role in your cybersecurity preparedness strategy. But how do you get them to care? Lack of understanding is a common reason why many employees are unconcerned about cybersecurity. Like many business owners, employees often underestimate their risk of falling for an internet scam, especially when they feel fairly competent staying safe online.
You can get your employees to care by making it personal. Make sure your employees know that it’s not just your company’s data that’s at risk, but theirs as well. In order for them to protect their own sensitive information, they must do their part to protect your company.
Gamification may also work to encourage better cybersecurity practices among your staff. Look for ways to make cybersecurity fun for your employees. For example, GovTech explains that gamifying your security training can facilitate better engagement and increased participation by personalizing the issue of cybersecurity for your individual employees.
Your employees represent points of vulnerability in your cybersecurity plan. A single employee mistakenly clicking the wrong link in an email can let hackers into your system, resulting in any manner of cybersecurity disasters. Give your employees the knowledge and tools they need to avoid internet scams and stand up for your company!
