One of the biggest barriers to cybersecurity could ironically be your own employees. A report by Fujitsu revealed that 54% of senior executives are struggling to adapt to cybersecurity practices. Unfortunately, 45% of these senior executives also stated that most employees are apathetic when it comes to cybersecurity. Due to these challenges in attitude, your business may not be able to properly implement cybersecurity measures. This puts your business at greater risk for the increasing number of cybercrimes that are attacking vulnerable organizations.
The cooperation of the entire organization is crucial in upholding and maintaining your cybersecurity. If you want to know how you can get your employees involved, here are some strategies that you can try:
Educate Your Workforce Regarding Cybersecurity
The first thing you need to do is educate your entire workforce regarding the importance of cybersecurity. The most straightforward way to do this is to hold seminars and workshops for the entire workforce. These will elucidate the urgency of cybersecurity practices and help your employees understand how their data could be at risk without the proper measures in place. To illustrate, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz’s book on internet data highlights the sheer amount of personal information that can be found online. The former Google data scientist revealed that such data could even provide insights regarding a user’s desires and behaviors—all of which can then be leveraged in digital identity theft or ransomware schemes. Once your employees understand how crucial data privacy is, they will make an effort to uphold cybersecurity measures.
Work with Cybersecurity Experts
Hiring or outsourcing a cybersecurity expert can also help in easing the workforce into implementing cybersecurity measures. TechFunnel points out that cybersecurity specialists are in demand among many organizations. Due to their knowledge and skills, these professionals make it easier for other employees to follow cybersecurity measures, wherever they may be. This is because these professionals are skilled in training individuals of different backgrounds in current security risks and issues. Moreover, they can personally implement cybersecurity programs that will make it easier for your staff to adhere to the rules. By onboarding a learned cyber professional to the workforce, you can create a shift in your employees’ attitudes, helping them grow accustomed to these new cybersecurity guidelines.
Strategize Against Challenges Caused by Cybersecurity Practices
Together with cybersecurity specialists, you can also tackle the problems that hinder your employees from following cybersecurity protocols. Tim Bandos of the Digital Guardian stated that employees ignore these practices because they believe that it disrupts their productivity. After all, strict processes often have to be observed to maintain proper security. To resolve these issues, you need to work with the cybersecurity specialists and IT teams in finding tools that won’t sacrifice productivity for security and vice versa. For instance, instead of asking your employees to avoid a long list of actions, you can invest in firewalls or VPN, so that the entire network is already protected from outsiders. Meanwhile, if your employees are accustomed to using USB sticks to transfer files among devices, you can introduce them to secure cloud sharing platforms instead.
Communicate Properly with Your Employees
Finally, as you implement the strategies stated above, it’s important to communicate the ideas and practices properly. After all, Dale Carnegie’s best-selling book on influencing people through the virtual states that learning to deal with people the right way is the key to better business. By learning to communicate effectively, you can gain a better understanding of the hindrances that your employees face when it comes to cybersecurity. Then, you can both discuss solutions in overcoming these barriers. Great communication skills are also important in helping employees navigate through complex cybersecurity measures. Through these conversations you will be able to address the problems that are affecting your employees’ cooperation.
Despite investing in the right cybersecurity measures, your employees may not follow the right protocols due to apathy or lack of knowledge. You can overcome these business challenges by educating the workforce, working with cybersecurity experts, strategizing against the hindrances, and communicating throughout the process. After all, cybersecurity relies on both the implemented policies and those who must adhere to them.