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Going forward, educating your team and customers about potential cybersecurity risks and crimes is essential to the survival of your brand. Indeed, the last thing you want is for your audience group to fall victim to phishing emails and scams pretending to belong to your company.
Companies need to seize the opportunity to implement digital crime prevention strategies, as cyberattacks are going nowhere. Keeping your customers in the loop and providing guidelines to recognise legit communication from your brand can be a game-saver. Similarly, training your team to cyber threats will also work wonders. More often than not, hackers gain access through human errors rather than identifying weaknesses in your IT structure! However, it doesn’t mean you should not stay up-to-date with security upgrades and patches.
Yet, contrary to common belief, accessing confidential data does not always require digital infiltration of your IT system. Here are data risks you may not be considering:
Physical intrusion in the workplace
Commercial burglary has always been more lucrative than residential theft. Offices gather many IT devices ranging from laptops to printers. If you have a warehouse, criminals can steal or damage your stock, putting your business revenues at risk. With experts such as NGF Industrial Doors, you can keep opportunistic and violent burglary incidents at bay as criminals struggle to get past the secured door. Typically, if neither tools nor violence can open the door rapidly, burglars move on to their next target before attracting attention.
What happens to your data in the event of a burglary? Criminals who steal electronic devices can have full access to all confidential data stored on them. They may choose to sell those for the best offer!
Public screen sharing oops
Not everyone will seize the opportunity to steal data. However, some people may see something they shouldn’t do during a public presentation. Picture the scene: You’re holding a presentation at a conference centre, and you find yourself having to log into an online tool. You type your password without thinking about it, but as everyone can see your screen, they also see your password.
Similar issues could happen during online workshops or even a share screen event with potential clients or applicants during an interview. You may not think about it, but some people are likely to take advantage of the accidental password exposure. Ideally, you want to ensure every tool you need to access during the presentation is already set up and logged in.
Employees’ lack of discretion
Sometimes, sh*t happens, and it’s out of your control. Employees do not realise they are putting the business at risk when sharing information with others. This could happen via screenshots to report an issue, for instance. Screenshots may capture more than they think, exposing private data to a third party.
It could also occur when someone needs to leave their desks momentarily and leave their screen on.
You need to ask the real question: why do people take advantage and steal data? More often than not, it’s because data are powerful. Criminals hope they can sell data to interested parties. As for accidental sharing events, more often than not, people don’t think anything of it. They may spot a password to gain access to your tools or notice a client’s email and simply assume they could use it for free.
