5 Ways To Create A Culture Of Awareness In The Workplace 

 

As a business owner, investing in the best security technology that money can buy is a great initiative. However this cannot help much, unless employees understand their roles and responsibilities in safeguarding sensitive data and protecting company resources.

Employee training is imperative to the overall security of your company’s network. Training will aid employees in understanding the value of protecting customer and colleague information and their role in keeping it safe. Good practice and policies are a critical element of security, which helps them to identify and avoid risks. Giving employees a basic grounding on all risks involved and how to make good judgements online should not be overlooked.

 

Make sure your employees cover these 5 points:

1. Keeping a clean machine

Have clear rules for what can and cannot be installed on work computers. Unknown external programmes can open security vulnerabilities in your network.

2. Following good password habits

This cannot be said enough times. Inform employees to use a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Passwords should be changed regularly and kept private.

3. When in doubt, delete

Employees should not open suspicious links, even if an e-mail is from a known source. Be sure that everyone knows about your company’s spam filters and how to use them to prevent unwanted, harmful emails.

4. Back up your work

Set your computers to back up all data automatically and equip your staff with the knowledge of how to do it themselves.

5. Stay alert and share

Encourage employees to keep an eye out for suspicious activity on their computers and to speak up about it if they notice any strange occurrences.

 

Employees need to know the company policies and practices they are expected to follow in the workplace regarding online safety. Informing them about the do’s and don’ts will allow them to make better judgement calls without unnecessary supervision.