BUSINESS
The biggest security threat to your business could be your employees By Chris White, Police Detective Inspector and Head of Innovation at The Cyber Resilience Centre for the South East A phrase you may well be familiar with is ‘accidents happen’. Whilst this is also true when it comes to cyber security, an accident could be all it takes for your business to suffer at the hands of a cybercriminal. At The Cyber Resilience Centre for the South East, we receive a weekly round up of cyber incidents that have occurred across the region. These incidents are reported to the police by business owners, with all these incidents causing a level of disruption to the business.
This may be a moderate disruption, or it may have had a huge impact on their service delivery. Many of the incidents that are regularly reported could have been prevented with the implementation of basic cyber security controls. Also last year it was reported that 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error, meaning that unintentional actions or lack of action led to a security breach taking place. With 54% of small business owners not providing regular training on cyber security, this figure of 95% will only increase.
As a small business owner, you may believe that you have nothing of value to a cybercriminal. Sadly, regardless of the size of your business, you are a source of money, data and are likely to have a reputation all of which are of interest to cybercriminals. The money your business makes could be stolen, your company’s data could be revealed to everyone on the internet, and your brand could be damaged or impersonated. All of these assets can be protected by your employees, who are often the front door or the first line of defence for a small business. It’s rather like a night club having trained security staff on the door to protect other customers and the venue, and to also spot when something isn’t quite right. Regardless of the type of business that you run, the responsibility and need for your employees to be trained appropriately in order to protect your business and raise the alarm when something doesn’t seem right is key. Cyber security has thee areas: people, processes, and technology. When looking at pe ople aspe ct, the
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