Hands Face Space: Reinforcing cyber security awareness.

The majority of us are working from home at the moment. As a consequence our surroundings feel less formal and in most cases we are more relaxed (unless there are young children to manage!). A lot of us seem to like this new way of working and as we know, some firms are considering making this a more permanent option for their staff.

However, when it comes to cyber security, we need to remain alert and not relax our guard.

Bad actors in the cyber security world are ramping up their tactics to take advantage of people working remotely in the hope that workers might be less vigilant in the comfort and security of their own home.

There are products that can help flag and alert people to possible cyber security issues and these certainly can help. A lot of firms have a number of these products in place and they are shown to help reduce the occurrence of a cyber breach.

Everyone needs to be reminded that the weakest link in a firm’s cyber security armour is the staff. Recently, according to a spokesman from one cyber security supplier, 91% of successful cyber attacks start as a spear-phishing email. This message needs to be reinforced on a regular basis so that it becomes second nature to be cautious.

So, a suggestion from us to pass on to your colleagues is:

Hands – think before moving your hand to click.

Face – Think of the consequences your firm might face from a security breach (GDPR / reputation).

Space – Give yourself the mental space to consider whether it looks legitimate.

Hopefully these three words should be familiar to you already, and therefore should be easy to remember.

Keep Safe!

Michele Asbury