With new advancements in technology happening every day, our world has become more reliant on the internet now than ever before. Nearly everyone has at least one electronic device meant for personal and/or professional use that has the ability to connect to the internet. Today’s online scammers rely on this fact in order to accumulate as many victims as possible. On average, a cyberattack is attempted around the world every 39 seconds. And, these attacks continue to grow in reach, complexity, success, and frequency. Although we are aware of and prepared for many common types of cyberattacks, scammers are creating new techniques and methods every day that may allow them to steal your information in ways that haven’t been seen before. Since cyberattacks are so common and frequent, it is important for employees to report any suspicious activity or incidents that may make your company vulnerable to a scam.
However, employees usually don’t report these incidents. Whether they fear backlash due to a mistake they made or are just unaware of the importance of reporting suspicious activity, most incidents are not reported. Because having knowledge of any incident is crucial to the safety of your company, it is important to encourage incident reporting among your employees. After all, ‘you can’t fix it if you don’t know what’s broken’, so you need to know what the areas of risk are to be able to develop a plan to mitigate them. It’s important to build a culture of sharing information related to reporting unusual events or suspected threats within the company as a whole. Here are some things you can do to encourage your employees to report cybersecurity incidents.
Set a Good Example
If you are going to make rules surrounding cybersecurity and incident reporting in your business, the rules must apply to everyone, including yourself. If your employees find out that your rules are being enforced unevenly, they will be less likely to follow them themselves. If you decide to make a rule that all suspicious activity must be reported no matter the circumstances in which they were discovered, then all employees must face the consequences for any activity that is discovered to have not been reported by them. It also may be helpful for employees in leadership positions to openly report incidents to set an obvious example of what is expected. Additionally, you must take cybersecurity seriously in all of its aspects. Investing in anti-virus software, partnering with a trusted IT company, utilizing a data backup service, etc. may also send the message that your company takes its cybersecurity seriously, as well as help keep your company’s data extra safe.
Offer Different Options for Reporting, Including Anonymously
Employees will be less likely to engage in incident reporting if the method used to report is embarrassing, inconvenient, or otherwise difficult to access. It may be helpful to offer multiple different ways that the employee could report an incident that might be discrete, easy to access, or even anonymous. Google forms, private meetings, email messages, etc. could all be good ways for employees to report incidents easily and effectively. Having an IT team that can examine and analyze devices in a discrete manner may also be helpful.
Make Cybersecurity Training Mandatory for All Employees
There are many different forms of cybersecurity training out there that you could use to train your employees. From informational sessions to specialized software to fake phishing emails, cybersecurity training sets your employees up for success. It can also show you who may need more training and who may need less. Cybersecurity training could also be used to make people more comfortable with your company and with reporting incidents, as well as boost their awareness- if they know they will not be punished for reporting suspicious activity they stumbled upon while doing something they may have not been supposed to be doing (such as shopping online or visiting a social media site), then they will be more likely to report the incident rather than try to hide it, especially if they know what viruses and other cyberattacks can do to a company.
Have a Trusted MSP By Your Side
A trusted managed services provider could help you through all of this. Not only can they offer good advice, but they can also help prevent attacks and help recover from successful attacks. A good IT company can tell you exactly what your company needs to maintain your cybersecurity. Here at Blue Oak, we offer a wide range of services including anti-virus protection, malware protection, internet content filtering, email spam filtering and phishing training, data backup, and much more. With an IT team by your side, you don’t have to deal with your cybersecurity alone.
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