Have you thought seriously about the ramifications that could happen to a business due to a data security breach?
Such an event damages reputations, can be extremely costly and usually causes stress for employees and affected stakeholders.
Keep reading to learn how an IT department that’s working at or near peak productivity often actively shields itself from incidents related to compromised content.
- It Thoroughly Trains Employees
Businesses often view employees as huge assets. However, they could also pose substantial data security risks. A survey conducted by HANDD, a global security firm, polled more than 300 IT professionals in the United Kingdom and found 21 percent considered employees a formidable challenge to data security.
Bearing that in mind, a security-savvy IT department instructs employees on do’s and don’ts related to keeping data safe. Many people may not even realize their actions are risky, so training is a great way to clarify.
- It Stays on Top of Current Threats
It’s only necessary to scan through news headlines of the last several months to know that data breaches and other types of attacks occur frequently. Competent IT professionals know the importance of risk management, a task that involves not merely identifying threatening factors, but quantifying them and predicting how such infiltrations could affect a company.
Knowledgeable IT department employees regularly read industry websites and other reliable sources to maintain awareness of what’s happening in regards to data threats and other possible issues. They also prepare fact-filled reports and provide them to an organization’s leaders, so management can advise about whether to take further actions based on findings.
- It Remains Highly Efficient
When IT staff members typically waste time due to inadequate resources, they arguably won’t be prepared to get the highest-quality work done in the shortest amount of time possible. Furthermore, they might fail to detect threats fast enough, allowing them to become unnecessarily severe. IT departments can boost efficiency in several ways, including by using remote monitoring tools.
Those resources let IT workers limit breaches and respond quickly to problems they spot. They also make it possible to look at several assets and figure out if an issue affects all of them or just one.
- It Observes Employee Work Habits and Responds Accordingly
One of the crucial things IT departments handle is ensuring employees have the tools they need to work swiftly without encountering obstacles. However, even more workplace-related improvements typically happen when IT professionals examine how employees prefer to work and then adapt as much as is feasible, in effect, keeping the organization safe from a data breach and potentially improving employee morale at the same time.
You’ve already learned how employees’ actions could make data breaches more likely. Consider why that’s particularly true if members of the workforce feel frustrated or restricted by a business’ IT setup. If it contrasts with how they usually rely on technology, they may break the rules even after knowing they exist.
- It Ensures Employees Truly Understand Their Roles in Minimizing Problems
It’s not enough to simply train employees and assume they’ve understood everything they learn with complete accuracy. Having a company full of workers who know data breaches are genuine threats requires continually coaching employees to verify comprehension and encourage them to realize they’re directly impacting the company at large by complying with the things they’ve learned.
According to a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute and Experian Data Breach Resolution, only 35 percent of respondents prioritized increasing the amount of employee knowledge about data security. That worrying result occurred despite the fact that survey respondents were aware of the problems of failing to be proactive and ensuring employees have a current and ever-expanding knowledge base.
Based on this list, you should have some solid ideas about how to make improvements where necessary to give your company better protection against stolen data.
The choices you make could lead to a stronger organization overall.
[su_box title=”About Kayla Matthews” style=”noise” box_color=”#336588″][short_info id=’103239′ desc=”true” all=”false”][/su_box]
About the Author
The opinions expressed in this post belongs to the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Information Security Buzz.
