June 19, 2017
Data protection experts say that the workforce should act like a ‘human’ firewall to keep data safe.
But data security training seems to be lagging because careless and negligent employees are one of the biggest security risks in the workplace today.
In a 2016 report by Experian and Ponemon, Managing Insider Risk through Training & Culture, 66% of respondents said their employees are the weakest link in their security; and 55% said their organisation had a security incident or data breach due to a negligent or malicious employee.
Here are 7 data security strategies on for training new and long-term employees on information security.
1. Be serious about security from the start. To lay a solid foundation, schedule security training during new employee induction. Provide an Information Security Policies and Procedures document – and run through it with new employees to make sure it has been understood.
2. Create a highly visible culture of security in the workplace.
3. Support the workforce with the best and latest IT safeguards. Install anti-virus and other safeguarding software on all devices. Schedule automatic updates and patching. But set clear rules for what employees can install and keep on work computers.
4. Address current threats:
5. Create a team security mentality. Employees should be taught to watch for strange actions online but also unusual behaviour by colleagues.
6. Be creative with data security training for employees:
7. Teach secure data disposal. Classify, label and store documents properly (paper must be locked away and digital information must be encrypted or password protected). Declutter regularly, and partner with a document destruction company for secure paper and digital data destruction services. A Shred-it all Policy should instruct employees to securely destroy all documents that are no longer needed.
To learn more about how Shred-it can protect your documents and hard drives, please contact us to get a free quote and data security survey.