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These days it is important that your staff are aware of the impact they can have on keeping your business safe from cyber-attacks. They are on the frontline when dealing with customers or the general public so they should always keep on alert when a potential threat becomes apparent.

Employees have to realise that it’s not just phishing emails that pose a risk of cyber breaches. The decisions they can make are the main cause of breaches. Fake phone calls supposedly from “technical departments” are a common method for criminals to gain access to systems. They gain the trust of the user by saying they are from big organisations such as Microsoft. Most people are aware of this con but it only takes one who isn’t up to speed to unknowingly open up their company’s system.

Another scam we have seen is the clone email address asking for someone within the business who has access to the finances. The scammers clone the email address of someone else within the business and ask for money to be transferred to the fraudsters account. Again, sometimes an obvious ploy but it just takes one slip up.

In order to combat these threats you need to persuade your workforce to put into practice what they have learned about cyber security. You can’t constantly keep a watchful eye over all of their activities so there has to be some level of trust there.

To make awareness part of the routine you need to give frequent reminders to your staff that they play a big part in keeping your systems secure. This might seem a bit out of reach for small businesses but you don’t have to spend a lot of time and money to achieve awareness. Some options could be:

• Team emails – sending emails to all staff that highlight key points of cyber security. Keep it simple with videos and diagrams
• Less is more – keep it short and sharp. People aren’t going to read long essays. They are more likely to take in and understand short but punchy messages
• Test your staff – send out some fake emails to staff members to see if they are alert enough to report a potential breach
• Have fun – keep it light so people don’t feel the pressure. Make a competition of it by seeing who scores well in mini quizzes or who reacts the quickest to a fake email

This all may sound a bit overwhelming but it is important to change your employees’ behaviour towards cyber security. Training and frequent reminders won’t eliminate all threats to the security of your systems but it will certainly help reduce them. Your staff will take away new procedures that they didn’t have previously which is already a step in the right direction.

If you are unsure about how your business deals with cyber threats then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us