Data security is a big issue for any company. With the threat from the Internet increasing every day, it’s necessary to train your employees to keep company information confidential. In this article, we will take a look at some of the steps you can take to improve the security of your organisation. Remember, the majority of data breaches come from an employee’s workstation, rather than an attack on a central database.
Use it Right
The problem many employees have is they visit websites they shouldn’t be visiting on company time. By Monitoring Internet traffic and preventing employees from visiting sites with security weaknesses, you can control the problem. 40% of employees visit malicious websites in their spare time without knowing it and if you do not stop this activity, it will impact the employee’s productivity.
When Employees Leave
Whenever an employee leaves you need to change their passwords and prevent them from gaining access to the network. It’s not as rare as you think to see a disgruntled former employee leaking information from the company.
Passwords and Secrecy
Encourage employees to keep their passwords to themselves. They shouldn’t share their information with other employees. The problems begin when everyone starts using everyone else’s workstations. It might be an innocent attempt at making it easier for people to retrieve files, but it prevents tracing.
Whenever a security breach happens, it’s important to trace where it came from and who is responsible. It’s impossible to do this when employees are using each other’s computers, logins and passwords. Make sure everyone sticks to using their own workstations.
Password Training
In most cases, you’ll have to rely on your employees to change their passwords on a regular basis. Train them how to choose strong passwords. They need to know what makes a strong password and why they’re more effective than weaker passwords.
The importance of this step is in the understanding. It’s more effective than telling people they need to create a strong password for the sake of it. People are more inclined to remember to do it when they understand the need for it.
Accessing Away
Stop employees from taking their files away on memory sticks without authorization first. A high proportion of employees take their information home with them and they don’t secure it. It makes the data vulnerable and it’s outside of the company’s control. You need to have a strict policy to combat this if you’re going to ensure a high level of data security.