MOTTJORDAN/123RF
CYBER
SECURITY
TIPS
Five more ways to protect yourself and
your company from cyber attacks
By Chuck Ingerman, Saskatchewan Research Council
Information technology (IT) teams are tasked with the unenviable job of protecting
the enterprise network infrastructure. Every year presents new challenges as cybercriminals
constantly change their tactics and more sophisticated malware tools hit
the market. Deceit in the form of cybercrime is now a multibillion-dollar industry and we’re
all targets.
IT experts work hard to stay ahead of cybercriminals by enabling multiple layers of security
service. In order to minimize the impact on business productivity, these tools are not as
invasive or limiting as they should be to stop all the malware. With minimally disruptive settings
for security tools, IT experts are finding that the criminal element is discovering new
and creative ways around these defences.
To further mitigate malware risks, organizations are turning to their next line of defence
– their employees.
By providing security awareness training, these companies are establishing their human
firewall. This defence structure is integral to securing the company.
This new form of training provides insight into the techniques used by cybercriminals to
perform their illicit activities and shows employees how to avoid traps. The Human Firewall
is important for both physical (e.g., someone trying to get into a secured area) and digital
(e.g., malware) defence.
Here are five ways employees can keep their companies safe from digital threats. See the
infographic at the end of this post for a quick overview.
Immediate reporting
If you see something out of the ordinary or receive something suspicious (e.g., a change
in bank information from a vendor), report it as soon as possible to help prevent an active
threat or future issues. Regardless of the nature or complexity of what you experienced, it’s
safer to report it and have the incident investigated (even if it turns out to be nothing) than
to ignore it and have someone else fall victim.
Follow policies
Your company’s IT policies help protect your organization (and you) from online threats.
They might seem annoying or overly cautious but know that they are there for a good reason,
even if it doesn’t seem obvious at first.
Always follow your organization’s policies, and as tempting as it might be, don’t develop
workarounds. Policies are established to support the level of acceptable risk for a business.
SASKATCHEWAN RESEARCH COUNCIL
Digital
Security Tips
5 WAYS TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND
YOUR COMPANY FROM CYBER ATTACKS
1. IMMEDIATE REPORTING
If you see something unusual, report it!
This can prevent a threat from escalating
or stop it from happening in the future.
2. FOLLOW POLICIES
Your company’s Information Technology
policies help protect your organization
(and you) from online threats. Keep
cybercriminals from accessing your
company’s valuable data by only using
IT-approve d software and systems.
3 . STAY ALERT
When travelling, avoid public
discussions (online or in person) about
confidential business. Keep an eye
on who is looking at your device’s
screen and don’t use public Wi-Fi to
connect to your corporate network.
4. BE SUSPICIOUS
Every email or phone contact should
be treated as suspicious if you are
not expecting it. If you don’ t trust the
information, call the person or business
directly using a known phone number
(e.g., from their public website).
5. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Security awareness training can
provide you with important info
about cyber attacks and how to
avoid them. Put these techniques
into practice every day to keep your
organization’s Human Firewall strong.
thinkbigmagazine.ca | Quarter 2 2020 | Think BIG 39
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