Security Awareness Training for Employees - Tips to Protect Your Staff At Co-Working Spaces
As an owner of a co-working space, you must ensure that the employees are trained to stay safe. It is because they will be responsible for handling various tasks and responsibilities. You can do this by providing them with safety training courses. In addition, it will help them be aware of the dangers they may face while working in your business.
Here are a few tips to protect your employees in co-working spaces:
Make Security a Priority
Security awareness training is crucial for any company that relies on the internet, mobile devices, and cloud services. Therefore, it's necessary to ensure that your employees are trained regularly. It is also crucial that security awareness training becomes part of their daily routine, as it can help protect against cybercrime.
It's vital to have a dedicated team member who will oversee all your security measures. It ensures they're always up-to-date with any changes or updates in the law. If you don't have an IT department, engaging with an external expert is recommended. With thousands and thousands of cyberattacks each day, half of the businesses in the US still do not have a cybersecurity risk plan.
It will help them understand what they need to do to secure your business. Security awareness training for employees can also be used as a preventative measure against phishing emails and other cybercrimes. By regularly updating the content of these sessions, employees will learn how to identify fraudulent emails sent by cybercriminals.
Physical Security Measures
There are many ways to protect your employees. One way is through physical security measures, such as a door alarm, security camera, and security guard. You can use a security cam in the co-workplace to alert you if someone is entering or exiting your shared workplace after hours.
A camera will allow you to monitor what happens inside and outside of your workspace at all times of the day. No one can steal anything from your office without being caught on tape.
You can also hire an armed guard who will patrol around the building for added protection for all employees within it. In addition, it ensures that there will always be someone nearby when they need help during non-working hours or while they're away from their desks.
Data Breach Preparation
Data breaches can be a costly and damaging experience for any business. Therefore, it's crucial to understand what constitutes a data breach. How best to prepare for one, and what steps need to be taken in the event of an attack?
A data breach occurs when sensitive information is compromised and exposed without authorization. It can include customer credit card numbers, proprietary documents containing sensitive company information, or other personally identifiable information.
Understanding how your team members respond if they notice suspicious activity on their computers or networks is crucial. They should not ignore it. Many businesses have been attacked without even realizing it at first. No one noticed anything until someone finally decided to look into what was happening behind the scenes on their network systems.
Give Regular Updates on Latest Threats and Your Policies
It's necessary to keep your employees up-to-date on the latest threats to your network and what you're doing about them. If you don't make it a habit, they may not realize they must be on guard against a threat. For example, if ransomware attacks become more common, you should inform your staff how best to protect themselves.
Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery is a critical component of any business setup. It is especially true when you have physical assets like computers and servers to take care of. A disaster that affects your business could be anything from a natural disaster to an infrastructure failure network failure.
These emergencies often happen without warning. Therefore, you must prepare for them in advance, with multi-layered protection against data loss. As an employer, you can educate yourself on what types of disasters are likely in your area so that you know how to get prepared.
For example, if there's a high likelihood of hurricanes hitting your area, then it might make sense for your company's IT team to work remotely. However, they should also keep their laptops at home, so they aren't at risk if their office building needs evacuation due to flooding.
Preparing Against Phishing Scams
Phishing emails are a common way to steal information. They can be hard for an untrained eye to spot. However, they're easy enough to spot if you know what to look for and how to respond. Phishing emails are ransomware's most common entry points, constituting around 54% of digital exposures.
The sender's address should be the same as your company's email address or website domain name. If it isn't, something fishy is going on here. The subject line should also appear professional. Again, if it doesn't sound like something your company would send out, chances are good that something is off.
Finally, always check the body of the email before responding. Phishing scams often contain malicious links or attachments that may compromise your device or network security if clicked on.
Password Management
A strong password combines upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. It should be at least eight characters long and include a mixture of letters, both lowercase and capitalized. Avoid using personally identifiable information as part of your password.
Passwords are not something you can share with your friends and family. In addition, studies found that 2 out of every five people report security breaches and hacked passwords because of common or bad passwords. Therefore, it's better to follow the above rules to have strong password management.
You should also avoid using the same passwords for multiple accounts. For example, if you have an account with Gmail, don't use the same email address to log in to Facebook or Twitter. Finally, never share your password with anyone else, even if they're in charge of IT security at your company.
Keep Your Employees Safe by Raising Their Security Awareness
When protecting your employees, you can't afford to be complacent. Security threats are constantly evolving and changing. It's necessary to ensure that your staff is aware of these new threats and prepared for them.
You must provide security awareness training as part of their employee onboarding process. This training will help them understand the most common cyberattacks to protect themselves against them.
In addition, the training should also explain why employees must take steps towards protecting themselves. It's necessary that they also understand the company-wide efforts like detecting suspicious behavior among other coworkers in your space.
Security and privacy are important topics that many people don't think about until they have to. But with the rise of data breaches, phishing scams, and other threats, it's more important for your employees to be aware the company is targeted. Raising their security awareness levels now can help keep them safe from future problems.