Are they locking up the warehouse properly at night? Are they taking care not to leave a confidential folder lying around in a public place?
Business chiefs and security managers have to make sure staff understand the implications of so many things that they do. But still today the threats to any commercial organisation are often thought of as mainly physical – everyone is worried about burglary, vandalism, fire and theft.
Company owners and leaders of organisations are understandably worried about protecting their physical assets, property and stock. They often spend large sums of physical security.
They may have fire detection systems, 24-hour monitoring and extensive perimeter security. But in today’s fast moving digital world most businesses have an even more valuable asset that is constantly under threat: their data.
All organisations are facing a rapidly rising security threat to their data communications, storage and systems. These threats are often treated as minor compared to the risk of fire or theft for example – but they are becoming much more common than either.
Data management risks are also potentially even more damaging than a fire. Companies can be completely destroyed by a major data breach, an invasion by hackers or malicious ransomware.
Any threat to data is a threat to the reputation of a company – and maintaining a good reputation is absolutely vital for many businesses.
And the latest figures demonstrate that a data breach can be more costly than any fire or physical theft. They show that the average UK data breach costs the organisation around £2.9 million per breach.
That’s why cyber security should become a vital part of many company’s infrastructure. Business IT security chiefs are increasingly turning to one of the top cyber security specialists to provide the most recent and effective protection they can rely on.
At a leading cyber specialist, there are now extremely sophisticated solutions available. These systems can provide very secure encrypted cover for a wide range of cloud network users in multiple remote locations.
This latest from of cyber security, known as a zero trust vpn solution for business, data protection is taken to a new level. These new systems are flexible enough to cover a wide range of applications across many complex network situations.
Benefits Of Staff Training
At the heart of any overall security system, however, are the organizations’ staff that have to use it. It was no surprise when experts recently found that more than three quarters of data breaches involve a human element.
Someone forgot to install the new update. Or the system firewall was disabled for maintenance.
That’s why modern data security training is so vital to the operation of any defensive system. It’s people who turn firewalls on and off and update the security settings.
Yet only 11% of businesses provide cyber security training for their employees, according to a recent UK government report.
There are seven main reasons why this lack of cyber security training could be disastrous for many companies and organisations:
- Training helps prevent data breaches. The cost of a data breach massively outweighs the cost of any staff training course that would help prevent it.
- Building an organizational culture of cyber security is very worthwhile. Training can instill a valuable ethos in an organization.
It’s vital that staff realize it’s not an annoying set of rules to joke about – it’s actually the way to progress the business. - Training can help make the defense against future cyber attacks more robust. Even the best technology is only as good as the people who operate it.
That’s why attackers usually target the weakest point in any organization – and that is often untrained staff.
- A fully trained workforce makes your company and its products appear more attractive to customers. They want to feel safe and secure too.
A recent report found that an astonishing 70% of consumers think UK businesses don’t do enough to keep their data secure. And around two-thirds of them are likely to avoid doing any sort of business with companies that have a bad reputation for data management. - Training helps companies comply with all the relevant laws, regulations and specific guidance for their field. More compliance is good – but more comprehensive training takes this all a stage further.
- Training can be seen as part of a company’s social responsibility. If an organization has cyber weaknesses, it can make all your suppliers, customers, associates and links vulnerable too. One network’s weakness can increase the risk for all the linked networks. Organization’s can grow strong together.
- A properly trained workforce is a way to make staff happier. They become more productive and more committed to the success of the company.
It also improves their own wellbeing – and of course improves the cyber security in their personal life too.
Training is seen by many industry experts as the most cost-effective method of improving organisational cyber security.
Many businesses and organisations are considering using one of the latest security systems, like a zero trust vpn. These new platforms are amazing one-stop pretective solutions for a complex security network.
Yet even these state-of-the-art systems are more robust if an organisation has security-aware staff to operate it.
It shows that software is an essential part of all organisations today – but the old business maxim is still true: at the heart of every good organisation, you need to have good people.
