How to prevent data breaches?

When it comes to breech position, there are no big fishes, small fishes, or hiding places. Almost all types of organizations store important personally identifiable information (PII). Regardless of size, industry, or other variables, Storage PII will make you a target, and only one employee is required to consider phishing legal. This means that everyone is at risk.

Moreover, Google statistics show that data breaches are on the rise and can bring devastating, long-term financial and reputational repercussions to your organization. Breaches happen in so many ways, a one-size-fits-all solution doesn’t exist. Security requires a multifaceted approach to be successful.

Here are four ways your organization data security barriers and prevent data breaches.

1. Train employees

Put all new employees through data security training and require all employees to take a refresher course at the start of every year, so the latest security guidelines are fresh in their minds.

While this type of training can be dull, it only takes a few minutes to cover the essential details. For example, employees should:

Treat all devices (e.g., desktops, laptops, tablets, phones) as being capable of accessing the organization’s systems. Never write down or leave a record of passwords where others can easily find them. Be extra suspicious of emails or phone calls from unverified people requesting passwords or other sensitive information.

2. Simulate phishing attacks

Many security issues are the result of human error, such as clicking on a link in a malicious email.

Spear phishing attempts i.e., highly targeted and customized phishing efforts – tend to lead to more breaches because they target specific personnel. The messages may reference a department or regular job function and can appear similar to other relevant messages in the target’s inbox on any given day.

Free or paid phishing simulators can test your employees’ ability to detect phishing emails by sending some of those types of emails yourself. Alerts and reports are provided for when someone responds to one of these messages.

3. Evaluate accounts

How often does your IT team evaluate existing accounts? It can undoubtedly be a complicated process, but evaluating all of the activated accounts within your organization can go a long way in shoring up security and minimizing digital bloat.

The best time of year to evaluate accounts maybe when you update everyone’s accounts from the previous year. If the time to sit down and evaluate accounts continually eludes your IT team, have them chip away at it between other processes, or have them schedule it as a larger project during less demanding months.

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