Common Employee Errors

In the modern, digital world where the majority of local and international businesses have moved the bulk of their services online, personal and business data breaches are a common occurrence. While cyber-attacks are a common part of the modern business arena, they predominantly come from external sources, meaning the attack is usually not coming from inside – or is it?

Contrary to popular belief, cyber terrorists do not have to be avid computer geeks to be able to breach your firewall and security defenses – they only need to be smart enough to look for weak points and exploit them. More often than not, your weak points are your employees. Here are the common mistakes employees make that lead to data breaches and how you can rectify them once and for all.

Email Correspondence and Team Apps

Email correspondence is the predominant communication tool in the majority of modern business settings, although the use of dedicated team apps is rising quickly in popularity. First, your employees, no matter how the redundant the task may seem, need to be trained on proper email correspondence and use.

Too often are sales teams caught off guard by a perfectly tailored email inquiring about your services or product, which could have dire consequences. Secondly, team apps where employees communicate and share their work are also prone to security breaches, especially if your company is experiencing a high employee turnover rate.

Be sure to educate your employees on proper in-app communication and put up security measures that will disallow any disgruntled parties from hacking into your valuable data.

Password Management

More often than not, people use the same password for multiple accounts, ranging from their personal and business emails to their private social media accounts and even their online bank accounts. The premise is simple and somewhat plausible: it is easy to keep track of only one password.

However, as simple as it might be, using a unified password across all platforms is a disaster waiting to strike, and if you cannot instruct your employees to use unique passwords for all their online accounts, you can certainly instruct them to create a unique password for their business accounts. Be sure your employees have a different password for their business apps and emails.

Losing Digital Devices

Giving company phones, laptops or tablets to your employees is an excellent way to keep data safe, increase productivity levels, and inspire trust, satisfaction, and loyalty in your team. However, if you give out these valuable tools without prior education and employee training through concrete and succinct rulebooks, you are setting the stage for massive data breaches.

Company devices are best left under company roof, yet employees should carry some devices, such as smartphones, home with them in order to remain available and manage important emergency tasks. Therefore, you should instruct your team on how to effectively safeguard their gadgets and protect them internally against unauthorized use.

The Hard Copy Problem

Although the world is moving towards a paperless future, the majority of businesses still operate on a “hard copy” mindset, printing confidential information on physical documents such as marketing reports, confidential client information and valuable contracts.

If you cannot eliminate the use of hard copies altogether, you can certainly strive to minimize it and educate your employees on how to handle every piece of paper, confidential or not. Your team members might not be aware of what constitutes classified or delicate information and they might unwittingly throw away documents that could open your company up for a security breach. Make sure you take all the necessary precautions.

There is no shortage of perils in the modern business arena oversaturated with competitors aiming at securing their piece of the market. Companies and individuals will stop at nothing to get ahead of the game but fortunately, you can protect your data and ensure long-term business success by following these essential guidelines.