Cybersecurity within the confinements of organizations has become a significant issue in the modern world. Data accessibility and security are the two major issues where human behaviour plays a big role. Today, employees have become one of the major threats to data security. At no point in time has employee data security been as important as today.
Less attention has been paid to the employee factor. Either through acts of negligence or malicious insider threats, employees are now causing data risks that leave organizations grumbling on their deathbeds. It has now emerged that organizations spend a lot of money investing in security strategies that only mitigate external risks. In the end, they end up experiencing dramatic consequences.
This article exploits the cybersecurity landscape from the employee’s perspective. It explains some of the employee-related cybersecurity threats and what organizations can do to prevent such threats.
Employee-Related Cybersecurity Threats
Insider Threats
Ponemon Institute’s Cost of a Data Breach Study found out that, apart from hackers, malicious insiders are the major cause of cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The same report shows that security vulnerabilities caused by insider threats are more costly than those caused by other breaches.
In 2019, Desjardins Group, a Canadian bank and one of the most popular federations of credit unions in North America, fell victim to one of the most devastating cyber breaches. The security breach affected more than 2.7 million people and over 170,000 companies. And guess who the perpetrator of the breach was? A malicious insider.
This is just one of the many examples of how insider threats are being leveraged to break through organizations’ systems. So, whereas it is good to have faith with your employees, you must draw distinct lines regarding cybersecurity.
Unsecured Personal Devices
56% of employees use personal devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and computers to carry out work-related activities. As more people use their devices to perform their duties, related security risks increase. Whether instituted by the employees or as a formal policy, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) mode of doing things opens up your business to data risks, breaches, malware attacks, data leakages, and hacks.
Usually, these devices are not well-protected from theft, malfunctions, and other vulnerabilities. 41% of data breaches now result from stolen or lost devices. As such, personal devices pose a greater risk to organizations.
Social-Engineering Attacks
Employees, especially new employees, are usually prime targets for social engineering attacks such as phishing and spear-phishing attacks. Hackers usually craft phishing messages that lure employees to download a malicious attachment or click on a malware website. As a best practice, enlighten your employees on how to identify and prevent a phishing attempt.
Bad Password Practices
Most employees use weak and dangerous passwords. Weak passwords have always provided hackers with the easiest and quickest path into an account. Before hackers try out more complex hacking techniques, they will first try a brute force attack to guess their way into your employees’ accounts. Therefore, employees who use weak passwords are more of a liability than an asset to your cybersecurity strategy.
Dangers Posed By Unsafe Wireless Networks
A study conducted by Kaspersky Security Network shows that close to 25% of the world’s wireless networks do not use any form of encryption. As a result, most employees are not keen enough and will end up connecting their devices to unsafe Wi-Fi connections. Such connections pose potential cybersecurity threats by hackers or network owners who might want to track employee activities, steal their data and company data.
Installation of Dangerous Applications and Programs
There are thousands of applications, software, and extensions that are developed daily. Most of these applications come riddled with malware that could cause a data risk if installed on a computer. Employees are usually tricked into downloading such extensions and applications without verifying their source. Once downloaded, the applications can do a range of things, from stealing data, infecting interconnected devices, spreading malware to leaking sensitive data such as mobile phone numbers.
Failing to Update the Software and Operating System
Most employees think that system upgrades is a task made for the IT personnel. They forget that they need to be liable for their devices. Most employees will ignore the “update available” popup notifications. They end up living with outdated and vulnerable software or operating systems that could leave them susceptible to data breaches.
Cybersecurity Solutions to Employee-Related Threats
The problems mentioned above can be solved by following the following employee-based cybersecurity solutions.
Have A Sound Employee Training and Awareness Program
The first step to protecting your employees against the wide range of hacking schemes employed by cyber attackers is by having a cybersecurity training and awareness program. A Perfect cybersecurity training program will make your business more secure.
The program will give you a unique platform to enlighten your employees about the many threats targeting them. You should also use the program to warn them against any malicious attempts of insider threats. In doing so, you will be making your organization more secure.
Data Encryption and Security Policies
One of the most fundamental practices of any organizational data security is data encryption. Employees must ensure that all data transmissions between two ends on the internet are encrypted.
However, although employees have a role in data encryption, organisations’ primary role is to ensure that all the in-transit data is encrypted. This is why organizations ought to purchase an SSL certificate. With an SSL, all communications will travel through the HTTPS protocol, the secure transfer protocol that ensures that data is adequately protected from malicious intruders.
The good thing with an SSL certificate is that you do not have to spend an arm and a leg purchasing an expensive SSL certificate for encryption purposes. This is because a cheap SSL certificate will provide the same encryption levels as more expensive SSL certificates.
Access Limitations
According to a 2016 Global Fraud Study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, a typical organization will lose 5% of revenues annually to employee fraud. To prevent such cases, you must manage access to all organizations’ resources. Here, it will be wise to apply the principle of the least privilege.
As part of your employee data security strategy, only those who have business with a specific data file or resource should be allowed to access the resource. Accounts belonging to employees who have retired or who have left the organization should be terminated immediately.
Set a Password Policy
As I explained earlier, weak passwords are the culprits to some of the security issues we see today. Employees have a tendency of using weak passwords that are easy to remember. Brute force attackers could easily get past such passwords to compromise your business data. As a best practice, it would be wise to have stringent password policies that require employees to adhere to the best password hygiene.
BYOD Policy
Personal devices pose a significant threat to business data. Employees tend to use unprotected devices, which hackers could use as a stepping stone towards accessing their data or organizations data. To protect against the threats caused by employees’ devices, it would be best to formulate policies that limit the use of personal devices for the organization’s tasks.
Employee Screening and Monitoring
Employee screening and monitoring are two fundamental elements of any cybersecurity strategy. The two elements help to establish the conduct of employees. Employee actions that could lead to a cybersecurity threat can be identified and rectified before they get worse. Monitoring can also help to prevent insider threats
Conclusion
The human factor is one of the weakest links of any cybersecurity strategy. You might have done your best to invest in expensive security tools and protocols. However, without factoring in the human element, then your security is dead on arrival. This article has exploited some of the employee-related cybersecurity threats and their solutions.
