No matter what type of industry you work in, there is a chance you will be working within the digital space. Even if you’re only online to submit a time card and answer an email or two, knowing how to stay safe online is vital.
All employees should be well versed in cyber safety best practices and stay updated as company policy changes. Here are a few tips and tricks to share with your team on how to stay safe online and avoid a major data breach.
Browse the Internet Safely
Whether you’re on the internet for work purposes or using work devices for personal reasons, you should always be safely browsing the Internet. While this tip may be known by many people, there are times where one might forget to check how secure a site actually is. Before accessing a website, make sure to check the beginning of the URL.
If a site’s URL starts with “http://” instead of “https://” then it is not secure.
The “s” at the end of this code is important because it stands for secure and shows you that a site is safe to be on. You can also tell if a site is secure if you see a lock icon next to the URL.
Look Out for Phishing Tactics
Cyber criminals are using more sophisticated tactics to try and collect personal information on the internet. With this in mind, you should be on the lookout for phishing emails that are designed to trick you. Phishing emails are designed to prompt you to open emails from unfamiliar senders and click on links from suspicious sites.
Once you click on an email, text message, or hyperlink, there is a chance that a virus or malware could be downloaded onto your device. This attachment could allow hackers to access any information stored on the device.
To protect yourself from these tactics, do not open any emails or links from an email address that you are unfamiliar with. Be sure to look for misspelled words or unusual text and run the URL through an antivirus program test to see if it has been tainted.
Install Cyber Security Software
One of the best ways to make sure you’re being secure online is to install cyber security software on your company and personal devices. Cyber security companies have many options for cyber software.
There are many options like antivirus, anti-malware, and anti-spyware software, and there are some companies that even offer all-inclusive packages. If you travel for work or work outside of the office at all, you should invest in virtual private network software.
A VPN hides your device while you are connecting to unsecured public WiFi. That way, no cyber criminals can break into your device and access your personal information.
Do Not Plug Flash Drives Into Company Devices
Chances are that at least once in your career you will be asked to attend workshops or public events on behalf of your company. Many of these public events will offer digital handouts that have information from the event. These usually will come as a USB handout or some downloadable feature. While this might seem like a reliable source, you don’t know if someone has maliciously encrypted these USBs with viruses.
With this in mind, you should never plug a foreign device into your computer, because you don’t know what could potentially be on it. To be safe, have an IT professional check the flash drive before you plug it into your company computer.
Many employees believe they are well versed in cyber security knowledge, but that may not always be the case. Keeping staff up to date can be challenging, but if there is regular training and knowledge sharing between employees, everyone will soon be cyber security experts. If you follow these tips, your company will be sure to keep its data safe and secure from any cyber crime.