Four Ways to Involve Users in Securing Your Network
To effectively secure your network, everyone in the company — not just the IT team — has to work together to prevent a breach. IT can install the best security firewall, but users also play an important role with the types of passwords they create and the emails they open on a daily basis.
Preventing a security breach on your company’s network requires a team effort. But as the system administrator, keeping the network secure is ultimately your responsibility.
It’s important to create a network security plan, one that outlines your team’s and the other employees’ roles in preventing a breach and responding to one if it occurs.
Next, make it clear to everyone in the company that network security is a top business priority. Create a written policy that outlines what is expected when it comes to corporate security, and have everyone who uses the network sign it.
To maximize the policy’s effectiveness, you need to gain employee buy-in and participation. To do that, follow these four ways to involve end users in securing your network.
#1: Keep Everyone Well Trained
IT security training is absolutely critical to educate your end users and keep your network secure. Security training should be included in new-hire orientation, but it should also be ongoing to keep employees updated on new threats and scams. The more your users know about what to look for, the better equipped they will be to defend your network against outside threats.
Everyone who accesses your network and systems from any type of device, including desktop computers and laptops, should receive ongoing security training. This type of training helps create awareness and helps employees develop safer online habits.
#2: Share Your Plan
Once you have trained employees on the importance of keeping the network secure and what a suspicious email looks like, what is the next step? Do employees know who to call or what to do when they recognize a potential threat?
Make sure employees know what to do when they have a security concern or are involved in a possible security breach. This includes directives for whom to call for help, and it also includes an action plan for how to respond to something suspicious. For example, if an employee accidentally opens an infected file and malware is initiated, what should she do first — call IT or immediately power off her machine?
Create realistic scenarios and role play with employees during training, so there is no confusion around what steps to take to react to a threat.
#3: Keep It Simple
As an IT professional, it can be easy to forget that not everyone in your company is as fluent in technical jargon as you are. Just because something may be intuitive to you and your team doesn’t mean everyone else in the company is on the same page.
When discussing security threats and protocols, keep it simple, so everyone — regardless of his or her role — can understand. Make it easy to follow the rules and do the right thing. When possible, build security processes into everyday operations to be proactive. This could be as easy as prompting users to regularly change their passwords or automatically updating antivirus software on employee desktops overnight.
Most importantly, make yourself and your team available and accessible. Encourage employees to report anything suspicious — even if it ends up being a false alarm. When it comes to your network’s security, it’s better to be safe than sorry!
#4 Make It Personal
The truth is, online security safeguards don’t just apply to corporate networks. Explain to your employees how hackers and scammers use the same techniques to attack individuals as they do to infiltrate business networks.
Explain how good online habits not only protect the business, but they can also prevent employees from suffering an online security breach in their personal lives as well. The same protocols used to protect company information can be used to safeguard employees’ identities and personal information while they aren’t at work.
Helping employees understand why network security is important and encouraging them to take a personal stake in safeguarding critical business information and systems is an important step to ensure your networks stay secure.
Security Consulting Services from Aventis Systems
If you would like help securing your network, we can help. Aventis Systems offers Security Consulting Services to find and minimize your network vulnerabilities before they are exploited. We provide an extensive security assessment and will advise you on how to proactively identify potential threats before they negatively impact your business.
This includes assessing potential vulnerabilities, performing physical and wireless network penetration testing, assessing social engineering threats, providing and implementing security best practices and providing training for your employees.
To learn more about how to keep your business network secure, contact our team of expert technicians today at 1-855-AVENTIS.
