IT Security Training - Your staff could be your weakest link

As many businesses prepare for a return to the office, IT security must form one of the most important considerations in the planning stages.

The sudden shift to remote working forced many businesses to manage IT security on a short-term basis, focusing heavily on their ability to get staff working and maintaining everyday operations as quickly as possible. Whilst some businesses continue remote working on a long-term basis, those returning to their office space will have many security considerations in addition to a long list of practical operational considerations.

Plenty of businesses have recognised the benefits in their staff working from home but working behaviours have inevitably changed with staff being outside of the office. Work kit is likely being used for personal use, and vice versa with personal kit being used for work purposes meaning staff can use non approved tools and applications, and IT teams have less ability to monitor and control the use of their business kit.

This type of behaviour is known to happen and IT cybersecurity experts will recommend a full IT security review to ensure business kit is safe to be re-introduced to offices and that your business continues to be protected against different types of cybercrime. However, this raises the question of how aware your staff are of the risks of cybercrime and how they could impact your business's overall IT network security through their lack of awareness.

As cybersecurity threats continue to advance, identifying and exploiting IT systems through different methods, a multi-layered approach to security is now more essential than ever to provide the highest level of protection to your business. Cybercrime continues to evolve and become more intelligent and even the biggest companies with the largest budgets to invest in the most advanced types of protection continue to appear in the news, having been subject to a security breach - EA Sports being a recent example. 

What more can you do to protect your businesses from cybercrime?

Although the security requirements for every business will be different, there is one thing we all have in common and this is people. It is staff who often act as the weakest link in a business's IT security as techniques used to breach IT systems become more difficult for the untrained eye to spot. Clicking what appears to be a genuine email, or visiting what looks to be an authentic website poses genuine risks to your businesses security and a simple error like this can have disastrous consequences – not just a direct financial impact but also risking reputational damage.

Managing your biggest IT security threat

Ensure your staff are aware of the far-reaching consequences of a cyber-attack and how they could unknowingly put your business at risk. By educating your staff they will be able to identify suspicious activity and know how to respond to it.

IT cybersecurity training services can be delivered to businesses in a number of ways but first, it is key to identify where your vulnerabilities are. Once you know this you can develop a training programme that will strengthen your IT security using relevant and user-friendly content that will target your specific training needs.

How We Can Help

ITRM is an IT Managed Services Provider, providing IT support and security services to businesses in London, Kent, Essex and Surrey. Within ITRM’s cybersecurity portfolio we provide ITRM Train powered by award-winning KnowBe4 platform and this will arm your workforce with the skills you need to avoid many different types of cybercrime. 

To find out more get in touch with one of our Security Consultants who can help identify and address the weakest link in your IT security strategy.