OOPS!

Oops! That’s the word you never want to hear from your barber, your surgeon, or your pilot.

Business owners are beginning to realize that it is not what they want to hear from any employee working at a company-owned computer – or a BYOD computer linked to the company system.

Last week, we shared some statistics that indicate that company employees may be the biggest threat to your digital data (click here for part 1). To underscore that foundation, we were stunned by one of the findings of a Netwrix 2017 IT Risks Report of government agencies:

“100% of government entities see their own employees as the biggest threat to security.”

Think about that for a minute. Not malware, not data breaches, not hackers, but employees.

The attacks may come from the outside, but the biggest threats are the employees on the inside. In fact, the report also revealed that 57% of actual security incidents among those agencies in 2016 we attributable to employee human error.

Before taking comfort in “only 57%,” the remaining 43% had their root cause in “insider misuse.” In this case, insider means “employee.”

Obviously, we are trying to make a point here. It is not that you should consider your employees to be ill-intentioned culprits. It is that you should understand the reality that, although they are probably not the attackers, they are the actors via which attackers gain access.

ICU

Before we share some of the finer details and proven ways to protect your technology from damage by your own personnel, which we shall do next week, we want to emphasize and re-emphasize that the essentially cornerstone of security protection for your technology is having an ICU approach. Perhaps we should say an “I see you” approach.

We are talking about an approach in which activity is monitored for the ability to identify aberrations that typically point to security issues and better position your company to handle the potential threats to your systems.

SPY

Secure and Protect Your Technology

Other than the logistical and operational issues we will discuss in the next article, there are two important obstacles that business leaders must foresee prior to making a bona fide commitment to protecting your technology.

1.   The rapid advance of digital technology is not going to stop or slow down to wait for you to catch up or keep pace.

2.   Some employees will perceive monitoring as a violation of their rights.

In Daniel Boone’s day, advancing pioneers secured a position then developed their operational resources within. Today, new resources are coming at us at a furious pace that security often follows rather than leads. If you are going to commit to advancing technology, you must commit to guarding it.

Employees (those people whom government agencies see as their biggest security threat) must be groomed to understand that it is not their activity that must be protected. It is your data. And it is your digital technology. Reasoning to the next level, savvy employers must change to employee paradigm in such a way that they become protectors of your security rather than perpetrators of OOPS moments that could bring your business to its knees.

You don’t have to be a techie or a geek or understand all the ins and outs of cyberspace. We are here to help you guard your technology. The first step is raising your awareness of the need before the need becomes an emergency. The next step is raising your employees’ awareness.

We are as concerned about your technology security as you are. Your computer system security is our business. That’s why Tech Sentries is always on duty. Contact us today to learn how we can help you “GUARD YOUR TECHNOLOGY” (843-282-2222).

Joe Thibodeau
Tech Sentries Inc
2105 Leopold Street
Johns Island, SC 29455
843-282-2222 Office/Fax
843-902-6885 Cell