by Felicien | Jul 2, 2019 | Education
Your small business needs a cybersecurity strategy, but beyond that, it also needs security awareness training. These two areas are not one and the same. There are important, distinct differences.
The Importance of a Cyber Security Strategy
First, let’s talk about cybersecurity in general. By now you likely understand the importance of cybersecurity for your small business. If not, here’s a brief overview. Joe Galvin, chief research officer for Vistage, writes over at Inc. on some of his firm’s recent research. 62% of small and medium firms admit to having an out-of-date, inactive, or nonexistent cybersecurity strategy.
This is highly problematic, he says, because small and medium businesses are huge targets for cybercriminals. These companies tend to have weaker security and less skilled security personnel (if they have any security personnel) than larger companies do. Yet they often store huge treasure troves of valuable data, like credit card numbers and other personally identifiable information.
Cybercriminals see this as a win-win. Security is lower and easier to beat, and the data available is often just as valuable as what they could get going after a bigger company.
Further, the stakes are so much higher than just a momentary loss of productivity. Many firms that undergo a cyber attack never recover and are out of business within a year.
Clearly, cybersecurity is of utmost importance for small businesses like yours.
The Importance of Security Awareness
Cybersecurity is important, yes. However, the best, most robust, most secure cybersecurity plan won’t protect you from your most dangerous threat: your own employees. That’s a blunt and surprising statement, but bear with us.
You need to be protected against traditional, “movie style” hacking, where bad actors infiltrate your systems from some faraway location. That is a real thing, certainly (though we can’t say it looks anything like it does on TV). It’s just not as common (or as easy to do) as the movies suggest.
In the real world, most of the cyber threats you’ll encounter don’t look like the movies. Instead, they look more like phishing and social engineering. That’s where security awareness training comes in.
What’s the Difference?
We’re arguing that both a cybersecurity strategy and security awareness training are essential for your small business. In case it’s not clear yet quite what the difference is between the two, we’ll restate it this way. Security awareness training handles the human component, while your cybersecurity strategy covers the digital component. Both are important, but they follow very different processes.
What Security Awareness Training Looks Like
Security awareness training can take a few different forms. Some security awareness training is done online. Your employees read materials or watch static videos, then they take assessments to gauge what they have learned.
The convenience factor with this method is nice: employees can work at their own pace and at any time of the workday. There are some trade-offs with this method, too. The training can be a bit stuffy, and it’s not interactive. If employees need help or clarification, it’s hard to get it. Hands-on learners may struggle with this method, too.
Some companies also offer a hybrid approach, where static courses are combined with live webinar-style classes. Some employees will benefit from the immediacy of a live teacher, but the trade-off there is that all employees must be present at the same time.
Some companies also offer live, on-site instruction, either as a standalone or as a premium add-on to their basic package. This can be a great option for single-location organizations.
Available Courses
A firm that specializes in security awareness training won’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. As your organization grows in complexity, varying business areas may need differing instruction. Certainly, some fields have specific, unique needs, too. Organizations that work in the health care orbit will have HIPAA rules to contend with, while those in education or finance will have their own.
Some firms offer 50 or more different courses as a part of their security awareness training protocols. Make sure that the providers you consider have courses that fit the needs of your business and industry.
Cost of Security Awareness Training
The cost of security awareness training varies based on many factors. The number of users receiving training is often the starting point. $1000 per year for an organization with 50 employees is a common starting point, but understand that program customizations and add-ons can increase this figure.
Other factors influencing costs include industry requirements, languages needed, and whether certification is desired. The number of courses each user takes may also affect cost.
Ask the providers that you are considering for a custom quote that breaks down the costs you can expect to see and which services those costs are associated with.
Conclusion
Having a cyber security plan and providing security awareness training are two vital components to your business’s digital security strategy. If you’re ready to explore what security awareness training should look like in your business, contact us today.
by Felicien | Jul 2, 2019 | Education
Social media is an incredible chance for your brand to interact directly with your audience and grow it even further. If you’re not able to manage your social media marketing properly however, you’ll simply waste time and resources, or worse, actually harm your brand’s reputation. Here are five key social media marketing mistakes that your business must avoid at all costs:
1. Discussing Hot-Button Topics
Some topics, especially political and religious ones, are simply not worth bringing up. This is especially true in today’s divisive political environment. You’ll end up dividing your audience and perhaps even bringing negative attention onto your brand. It’s better to avoid these issues altogether and playing it a bit safer with your choice of topics.
2. Winging It
Social media marketing is the same as any other digital marketing strategy. You need to know what you want to get from it. If you don’t have specific goals for your social media strategies, you’ll never know exactly what to do or when they’re successful. Take the time to think about what you really want from each social media platform, and brainstorm about what you must do to get there.
3. Posting For the Sake of It
Research has found that the number of social media posts you need to be making on a daily and weekly basis is quite frequent in order to truly engage with and grow your audience. On Twitter, for example, you may need to Tweet up to 15 times per day. However, this doesn’t mean that you need to simply fire out meaningless Tweets all day to keep your numbers up. Each post needs to be meaningful and engaging. If you’re just posting low-quality content over and over again to meet a minimum criteria, your audience is going to see through it and will most likely unsubscribe. It’s important to post frequently, but only as often as you have something important to say. You cannot forego quality for the sake of quantity.
4. Treating All Platforms the Same
It’s likely that you have a presence on a wide variety of social media platforms. At the very least, Facebook and Twitter, and then probably a couple out of Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, etc. The problem is when you treat all social media platforms the same. The average audience on Facebook and Twitter are much different. People use Instagram differently than they use Pinterest. If you want to truly thrive on social media, you need to understand each platform and what your audience is looking for on it. If you’re struggling to do that, you may want to focus on establishing a strong presence on just one or two platforms at a time.
5. Ignoring Negative Activity
It’s critical that you don’t get defensive on social media, but you cannot simply let negative feedback go unanswered. Not only does it further harm the relationship between you and the individual complaining, but it also adds some legitimacy to the complaint for everybody else to see. After all, if you had a reasonable response to the complaint, why wouldn’t your company voice it? Make sure that you have dedicated customer service resources handling your social media comments in a professional, expedient manner.
By avoiding the key social media marketing mistakes listed above, your business will be in a great position to not only survive on social media platforms, but thrive on them. Your audience will be engaged and energized, and you’ll reach more people than you ever thought possible!
by Felicien | Jul 2, 2019 | Education
As in so many areas, Canada is now pushing to make the online world a more equitable one. It also wants Canadians to have their privacy online instead of having their information sold by whoever can get ahold of it. The use of the data that companies do collect about you is now being regulated by the expanded Canadian Digital Charter. Here’s how it seeks to create a better experience for Canadians.
Technology in Canadian Ecommerce
Using up-to-date technology is increasingly a part of daily life, and innovators who don’t have it will be left behind by those who do. Canada’s Digital Charter is a way to protect Canadians from some of the ways their data could be used as well as to make it easier for everyone in the country to have internet access. E-commerce is a larger and larger portion of the economy all over the Western world, and Canada would fall behind this march to the future if Canadians had trouble getting online and feared for their very privacy if they were to do so.
Canadian Access to Internet Connectivity
With so much of the world now online, keeping Canadians able to connect is a key factor in keeping them competitive. Part of the Canadian Digital Charter is to give universal access to all Canadians, no matter where they live or how much they know about computer use. The charter seeks to ensure that every Canadian is not only offered connectivity but is given the computer literacy they need to be able to use one. In addition, the charter rolls out a new standard for safety online. With so many new internet users about to join the online sphere, the government is focused on making sure they don’t get taken advantage of, threatened or targeted with scams. To help create a better atmosphere of safety, the government plans to put multiple laws in place to deliver punishments for breaking cyber-safety laws.
Data Privacy Compliance in Canada
The charter further calls for every online user in Canada to have their privacy protected by the sites they use. If a company wants to use their personal data for any reason, the internet user should know exactly what it will be used for and must consent to share it for that purpose. In addition, Canadians are declared to be free to see their own personal data as well as to move it or share it easily. Websites that have Canadian visitors must comply with these privacy laws in order to stay compliant and available to online users in Canada. Clear, open disclosure of data collection, usage and storage will be needed to maintain that compliance.
Free Speech Online for Canada
As in most countries, free speech is not an absolute right in Canada. The charter spells out the kind of speech that Canadians shouldn’t have to come across online. These include hate speech, threats, extreme views advocating violence and content that is otherwise illegal. The government also seeks to keep false news stories away from readers who may not realize that what they’re reading isn’t factual. Keeping Canadians safe from these problems is considered a right that Canadians have in order to create a better online experience and to encourage more people to use the internet to make their lives easier.
With this charter, Canada is expected to become more competitive on a global scale. Unburdened by false news stories and hate speech, the government hopes that the online atmosphere will be more conducive to Canadian innovation.
by Felicien | Jul 2, 2019 | Education
Cybersecurity incorporates a number of technologies to safeguard digital data. Threats come from unauthorized access and internal missteps lead to increased risks that hackers take advantage of. Healthcare is increasingly the target of cybercriminals as bad actors learn how to successfully target unguarded or insufficiently guarded data. This includes data sharing, digital health records and medical devices that send data to hospital systems without protecting the data in transit.
Health informatics makes the process more efficient. The threat of cyber attacks makes technology less reliable than it would otherwise be. At the same time, healthcare professionals rely on technology to retrieve, send and share healthcare data. Due to various cyber threats, every organization needs to invest in solutions that keep data secure without compromising access to technology for those fighting to save lives.
How Has the Digital Revolution Changed Healthcare?
Not too long ago, doctors had to limit their time with patients due to a mountain of complicated paperwork. The digital revolution has helped solve that problem. With fewer handwritten notes and more direct entry into electronic patient files, paperwork and the amount of time devoted to it have decreased dramatically.
This is a crucial advancement as the global population soars and the number of healthcare data becomes more difficult to secure. Cybersecurity in healthcare needs to secure the network and database without slowing down the process of providing efficient care.
Does Cybersecurity in Healthcare Save Money?
Cybersecurity saves millions of dollars in the healthcare industry. The industry has grown rapidly in the last two decades. Now, healthcare providers deal with many more patients in an 8-hour shift than they used to in a 12-hour one. This is largely due to the reduced paper trail made possible by digital technology.
With cloud-based computing, providers can share information with patients, colleagues and other departments in seconds. At the same time, safely storing and accessing patient data is also much easier.
How Important Is Cybersecurity to Patients?
Patients have the biggest stake in cybersecurity. After all, it’s their data and privacy that are at risk — and possibly their health. Hackers leak private information on the dark web, where it may be picked up to commit identity theft, Medicare fraud, and other crimes. Advanced cybersecurity allows medical professionals to ensure privacy and peace of mind for their patients. This also prevents legal issues related to hacked patient data.
Healthcare practices are at a disadvantage due to the many endpoints in the system, including the Internet of Things (IoT) devices that feed data into the network from various endpoints. Specifically, tablets introduce vulnerability because they hold patient health records or are used to access them. No matter how much administrators shore up the network, it only takes one outdated device to open the healthcare provider up to an attack.
What’s the Cost of Leaked Patient Data?
Healthcare providers need to protect their practice as well as those they serve. This requires robust cybersecurity that prevents the leaking of patient data. When information is leaked, legal costs can skyrocket and even bankrupt a practice or provider.
What Improvements Need to Be Made?
Healthcare organizations can take the following steps to secure their data:
Patch systems based on the recommendations of system and application vendors
Open only required ports
Scan systems to identify vulnerabilities
Prioritize system vulnerabilities based on risk severity
Enable SSL certificates and test to ensure they’re working as expected
by Felicien | Jul 1, 2019 | Education
While some might assume that fear of an economic recession would be at the top of the list of key issues CEOs concern themselves with, a recent survey found that another issue is of much greater concern: Cybersecurity.
This is no surprise.
For the past several years, cybercrimes and data breaches among companies large and small, governments, and even individual citizens have risen drastically. While it’s true that many CEOs still assume a data breach at their own company is highly unlikely, with the ultimate price tag of such attacks ramping up to the millions of dollars (and recovery being hardly successful), it makes sense that CEOs are taking notice.
What Does a More Concentrated Focus on Cybersecurity Mean for Companies?
Corporate chiefs and C-suites who are most concerned with cybersecurity are naturally becoming more involved in their companies’ defense strategies. After all, a breach of data isn’t just about the loss of money. It can also mean the loss of a job for a CEO or C-suite member and a permanent label as someone who can’t secure their company.
Furthermore, even if a breach doesn’t cost a corporate leader their job, customers, clients, and investors are sure to drop their interest in a company that’s lost data, money, and trustworthiness after a cyberattack. Large companies like Yahoo, Target, Equifax, and others have all felt the blow of such fallout.
How Do Most Cyber Attacks Originate?
When most people think of a cyberattack, images of an ultra-sophisticated Russian hacker sitting in a darkened basement with glowing green and blue lights comes to mind. However, cyberattacks can come from anywhere and from anyone. They may be performed on public computers, from office buildings, at public Wi-Fi cafes, from residential homes, or even in airports.
Your own cyber attacker could be coming from across the world … or down the street. Once you find out that your company’s data’s been compromised … it may not really matter anyway.
Because of their cloak and dagger way of operating, cyber attackers and criminals are rarely located and seldom caught or prosecuted. Part of being a cybercriminal, after all, means knowing how to confuse and reroute IP addresses through a multitude of countries. This makes retracing the invader’s steps a serious challenge — even for the most advanced IT specialists.
Therefore, the key to avoiding such attacks is, of course, to prevent them in the first place. This is the goal of an increasing number of savvy CEOs. It means putting cybersecurity first and foremost on their priority list and recruiting the help of highly-educated and trained information technology specialists.
How Can CEOs Prevent Cyberattacks in Their Companies?
The key to preventing cyberattacks is knowing how they start in the first place — and remember, it’s not where most people would think.
Again, many people assume that cybercriminals work by being absolutely amazing at breaking into super-advanced and complicated security systems. But nearly all mid- and large-sized companies have advanced security systems, and they still get hacked. Assuming that cybercriminals can simply break into these systems is giving them too much credit. Instead, most cybercriminals gain access much in the way vampires are said to gain access to their victims: Essentially, by being invited.
While lore claims that vampires must be invited into a home before they can step foot inside, cybercriminals also work their magic by essentially being given access to sensitive data by unknowing company employees — or even CEOs and other upper management members themselves.
It’s called phishing, and it’s the number one way cyber attackers gain security access to companies’, organizations’, governments’, and individuals’ data.
What Is Phishing and How Can You Prevent It?
Phishing generally takes place via email. The target receives a fraudulent email that claims to be from someone the target trusts, like the institution they bank at, human resources at their company, or upper management.
Somewhere in the email, the target is asked to send sensitive information for a “security check” or similar. Alternatively, they may be asked to “click here” for more information or to receive a coupon special, for example.
This is all with the goal of getting the target to do something that will allow malware onto their computer. Once this happens, the hacker who sent the phishing email will be able to steal, ransom, or corrupt sensitive company data.
The best — and in some ways, the only — way to combat phishing is to adequately train your employees and entire staff. You’ll need to teach them to:
Be suspicious of any unanticipated or surprising emails — especially those that ask the recipient to take certain steps
Double check email addresses for authenticity
Double check web addresses for authenticity
Be wary of threatening or enticing language
Never click on unsolicited links or attachments sent to them
If you are a CEO or C-suite member who’s concerned about the cybersecurity of your company in 2019, you’re on the right track. While the growth of your business and the frightening possibility of a recession are surely important to you as well, everything can be lost in an instant if your company is attacked by a cybercriminal. Taking steps now to better train your employees and enlist the right cybersecurity professionals to protect your business is wise and responsible.
