With the advent of GDPR and the recent slew of high-profile hacking cases, ensuring that corporate data is properly stored and protected is more essential than ever.
Despite this, new research conducted by Mactavish claims that 43% of senior executives and managers have suffered at least one cyber attack within the last two years and whilst sensitive data may well have been compromised, only 31% of those polled believe that the cases had been dealt with properly.
The data also claims that less than half of senior executives and managers feel that their employees are conscientious about the threat of a cyber attack, whilst just 51% believe that their businesses have adequate strategies in place to deal with such attacks.
Some 13% of those polled actively believed their workplace protections were poor, whilst 30% described their security as ‘average’.
“The chances of suffering from a cyber- attack are increasing,” commented Mactavish CEO Bruce Hepburn. “Our research suggests many employers are not taking this growing risk seriously enough.”
What can businesses do?
“The majority of attacks we see rely on a human taking some sort of action, whether that’s clicking a link or opening an attachment in an email because they assume it’s legitimate,” CEO of Fintech firm iwoca Christoph Reiche recently told The Telegraph.
“Phishing and ransomware attacks are common but are not complex, so understanding what a potential attack looks like is key to preventing one.”
According to government-funded cyber security site Cyberaware, there are a few key steps to ensuring workplace cyber safety that your employees can action today.
Firstly, ensuring that all work-based computers are up-to-date on the latest malware-blocking software is essential, as is systematically updating passwords on a regular basis with strong and separate complex phrases.
You must also ensure that all data is legally stored in safe locations. This means ensuring that your employees are not leaving sensitive data in un-secured files or potentially compromised locations.
Staff training on security and safely storing data is highly recommended to ensure your business is adhering to legal standards of practice.
