We all know what a huge danger a cyber security breach can be for a business. And just how many businesses are being breached right now. You hear about it on the nightly news and read about it almost daily in the newspaper.
In truth, we hate having to write this. We don’t want to feel like we’re scaring you or sound all doom and gloom! But it’s really important that you’re fully aware of the risk to your business if you suffer a breach.
Last year, the number of reported data breaches rose 68% compared to 2020.
And while it’s a good idea to implement the right cyber security tools to help reduce the risk of an attack, it’s practically impossible (or definitely unworkable) to give your business 100% protection from attack by only using software tools. You also have to manage the human element of data protection.
Because according to research, 85% of data breaches are caused by human error.
If that happens, who’s to blame for your cyber security breach? Your employee? Or you, the business owner /manager?
It’s a difficult question. Sure, your employee is likely the one to have clicked the link or downloaded a bad file that turned out to be malware. They may even have disabled security features to try to speed up their work.
However, as the business owner or manager, it should be your responsibility to reduce the risk of that happening in the first place.
It all starts with training your people regularly to make sure they understand the risks and how to avoid them. But you should also have the right policies in place to remind your employees of best practices, and what happens if they fail to comply.
Employees are your first line of defense against security breaches. They can only ever be as good as your cyber security strategy. Get that in place so everyone knows:
• What’s expected of them
• How to avoid risk
• What to do if things go wrong.
Be sure your systems are appropriately locked down, so that your employees can’t change security settings or install random software applications.
We say, don’t worry about who’s to blame – just get your ducks in a row, starting with your cyber security strategy. If we can help, get in touch.