Good Cybersecurity At Work Starts At Our Home Office

Post by: Bill Duenges. Forbes Technology Council. Shutterstock Image

Like a dog with a biscuit, a link in an email is so enticing that most employees want to click it, no matter the ramifications. It is a problem most organizations have today -- the end user and the malicious links that appear in their email. When curiosity kills the cat, how will companies stop the click?

Most companies today employ sophisticated security layers to prevent malicious characters from accessing the network and its data. Still, in the end, it always comes down to the end user. How do you teach the end user to not click the link? Train them on good security at home. The key to good cybersecurity at the office is leading the end-user on what to do at home when they are not protected by corporate security.

Develop Strong Passwords On All Home Network Devices, Especially Their Computer And Websites They Use

Teach and show them the difference between a solid and weak password. Nothing is more powerful than showing a person how quickly an invalid password can be cracked.

Teach Them How To Hover Over Links
 
Modern email spam filters rewrite links in the office, but what about the connections that make it through? Teach the users how to hover and read a URL link. When they do it daily at home to protect their home network, they will do the same to protect the corporate network.

Teach All Users The Pillars Of Identifying A Spam Email

There are some common elements of spam that users can use to identify malicious emails:

• They always seem to include a rush or a drop-dead date.
• Words are misspelled, or punctuation is in the wrong place.
• Check the display name to see if the domain matches the name. In a fraudulent email, these will not match.

Teach All Users The Importance Of Three-Two-One Backups
 
Teaching users how to protect data at home ensures they will take the proper precautions in the office. As most system administrators know, laptop backups don’t always work -- and there always seem to be problems when the user needs the data most. Teaching the end user a good backup policy at home means they will be more likely to take the same care with their corporate data. Teach them to keep:

• Three copies of all data
• Two copies on different mediums
• One copy offsite

Explain The Differences Between The Different Wi-Fi Encryption Strengths And What Each Does

Show them how easy it is to crack a Wi-Fi password that needs to be stronger. This is handy when the end user works from the coffee shop or travels and utilizes their phone as a hot spot.

When you empower and train the employees, cybersecurity at the office becomes more accessible because they understand the dangers and what the organization is doing to protect them. At some point, an organization’s technology to defend itself may fail, and the only thing standing between the malicious actor and the data will be the end user. I would rather have an empowered, trained end user than one who relies on the organization for their protection. Mistakes will be made, and immediate follow-up training should be done, but practicing their cybersecurity skills at home will make those mistakes few and far between. In all organizations, everyone needs to think about cybersecurity and be a partner in protecting the network. 

Like feeding a dog, feeding the employee knowledge will make that link less irresistible.

Service companies, contractors, and builders utilize advanced technology at home and in the office to increase work efficiency, manage daily tasks quickly, and create a more positive workspace.