With cyber-attacks becoming rampant, security is the biggest concern for organizations today. Every incident is dangerous as it can cause financial losses, affect brand reputation, and even lead to possible legal liability. It makes sense to go the extra mile for assessing vulnerabilities and addressing them to make your business hack-proof. Human error is the most common source of organizational vulnerabilities, so you need to see cybersecurity as a people problem. Further, you must focus on building a human firewall to protect your business from breaches and risks. Let us explain how you can build and boost it.
Start with Baseline Testing
Even before you build a human firewall, you need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your system. Baseline testing with simulated phishing attacks enables you to assess the risk factors and identify the areas of improvement. You cannot take this step frivolously because it is impossible to develop and implement training standards unless you measure your capacity.
Invest in Cybersecurity Training
Once you uncover the gaps in the system, it will be easy to develop a need-based cybersecurity training program for your people. It should offer scenario-specific interactive content along with hacking demonstrations and resolution exercises. Make it a mandatory part of the induction program to ensure that every new employee has a clear picture of your stance on security. Ongoing training for existing staff is equally vital.
Have a Dedicated IT Security Team
Even as you have trained employees who know cybersecurity best practices, you cannot afford to go slack. A dedicated IT security team offers immense support to the human firewall. You can opt for Outsourced IT support rather than building an in-house team. The model gets you the services of trained and seasoned cybersecurity experts without spending a fortune. Building an in-house team is far more expensive as you need to hire and retain professionals.
Create a Culture That Prioritizes Cybersecurity
Boosting the human firewall for your company is also about creating a culture that prioritizes cybersecurity. Training people is a good start, but a strong culture makes them care about cybersecurity. Once your employees develop that approach, they will think twice about every single action and step from the security perspective. At the same time, they will make conscious efforts to ditch the risks and fortify the organizational data, network, and applications.
Measure and Monitor
Driving behavior change in your employees takes a lot of effort, but it is not a magic bullet. They can still make mistakes and compromise security at some point. It is vital to measure and monitor the efficacy of your cybersecurity awareness program from time to time. If you think it needs to be updated according to the prevailing circumstances, do it sooner rather than later. Educate people to ensure that they abreast and implement the updates in their daily activities.
Building and boosting the human firewall is a worthy effort for any business. It acts as your first line of defense and can save your organization from risks and attacks if it is robust enough.
