Are Your Employees a Threat to Your Cybersecurity?

Cyberattacks have gone up since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while more and more people continue to choose to work remotely, businesses have found cybersecurity to be even more important than ever before.

 

This is because most businesses, if not already, are transitioning to using online storage platforms. The use of these platforms has been a huge cost saver for many businesses, especially those who have a lot more data to work around, or need a convenient way to give their employees access to work accounts. While these cloud service platforms have been great, hackers have found a way around these security walls by hacking your employees.

 

Which raises the question – Just how safe is storing your business data online? Should you be concerned about cybersecurity threats and how can you avoid them?

 

Protect Your Business from Cybersecurity Threats

 

While Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants in the cloud industry have done a remarkable job at providing cloud platforms that are secure enough for you to store sensitive business information on, hackers are breaching these security walls by targeting your employees in the attempt to gain access codes, emails, passwords, etc. 

 

This makes it impossible for tech companies to completely secure your data. And unless you have your own cybersecurity department, which most of us don’t, or have hired an experienced cybersecurity team that monitor and keep your data from being breached, it can be quite challenging to know just how safe your data is and if your company is at risk of any cybersecurity threats

 

Is Storing Data on the Cloud a Cybersecurity Risk

The short answer is yes.

 

While Google and Microsoft have put a lot of effort into securing their cloud-based platforms, and have even published recommendations on how to keep information and data secure, there is not much they can do when data is being accessed from your employee’s end.

 

The best thing you can do is to understand how these hackers are taking control of your employees’ accounts and try to implement policies to help reduce these threats. 

 

So here are a few ways your employees are being hacked. 

Phishing and Link Scams are a Common Attack

 

Phishing is a common practice hackers use to steal private information. The way it works is hackers will target your employees by sending them an email disguised under a name of a trustworthy person or company and either trick them into giving information, or trick them into clicking on a link that will download malware. 

 

 

In this report, most common cybersecurity vulnerabilities, statistics show that phishing and spam links are the most common practices hackers use to gain access to your business.

 

The Danger of Cyber Attacks Through Social Engineering

 

Social engineering is a much more devastating but less common cyberattack that hackers will use to breach your cybersecurity. 

 

Social engineering is an elaborate con in which a hacker will act as a coworker or someone within your company and ask for information. An example would be a “high-level manager” from a different department asking for access, or a new hire asking for help.

 

These cons are well thought out! The level of effort hackers go through to gain access to your company’s private information through social engineering usually has a hefty cost that will hurt your business.

 

Password Attacks

 

There are many types of password attacks that range from guessing to using computer algorithms in an attempt to gain access to your business. Even the most experienced hackers will try to use the simplest methods first as it is less of a risk of getting caught.

 

That is why it is good to use a strong password and unique password to reduce any type of security threat from people who may try to gain access without credentials. It might even be a good idea to invest in a password manager if your business uses a lot of passwords.

 

Summary

While there are other ways hackers can also target your employees, implementing policies in your company to help reduce cybersecurity threats that are listed will help keep your data more secure. If you are handling a lot of sensitive information it may be wise to pay a team to monitor your company’s activity to keep cyber security threats at their minimum.