Top 5 Rules For Laying Out An Employee Cybersecurity Policy

 

When technology moves as fast as it does it can be immensely difficult to stay on top of things in an effective manner. Vulnerabilities open up without you realizing it and, sadly, it usually requires something to go horribly wrong for people to actually start addressing the issues with concrete cybersecurity.

 

Fortunately, the attitude of lagging behind technology in cybersecurity is changing and companies are increasingly seeing the value in developing well structured cybersecurity policies for their employees. To that point, let’s take a look at 5 important things to consider when laying out such a policy.

 

A good way to introduce employees into the difficult and confusing realm of cybersecurity, is by starting with the basics. “People hear cybersecurity and think of some immensely complex technological war between advance hackers and robotic defense systems. In truth, it’s as simple as making sure you don’t use the same password for everything”, explains Sheila O’Sullivan, tech journalist at StateOfWriting and BigAssignments. Password management means advice on using complex passwords, password storage techniques, password sharing techniques (where applicable) and reasonable timeframes for changing passwords. A basic but crucial element to cybersecurity.

 

One problem with cybersecurity is that, as mentioned above, it isn’t at a point where it really occupies a space in the collective conscious. People often don’t even know what it means and, if they do, many of them won’t see what it has to do with them. In drawing up an employee policy it’s not a bad idea to just introduce a little element of fear factor. Show employees the danger of having an unsecured cyber set-up and what can happen to people when their security gets violated. Emphasizing the risks is a really important step that will help to streamline the rest of the process. Having your employees on board can really help you make life a lot easier for yourself.

 

When you’re writing a policy that is simultaneously introducing many of the people directly effected by it into the world of cybersecurity you have to be very careful. Incorrectly explaining a concept or a set of procedures relating to the policy could cause some upsets amongst people whose knowledge of this field is too rudimentary to be able to fill in the gaps for themselves. Writing this sort of a document effectively and avoiding all the potential pitfalls along the way is tough, not least of all when you are also creating the policy itself. For help in this area check out PaperFellows, AustralianHelp and OxEssays.

 

Many people won’t think twice before logging into their emails or their bank account whilst on a network like a coffee shop WIFI. Understanding the different types of networks and the security of the connections that each affords their users is a vital step for your employees to take in grasping cybersecurity policy. Its fundamental nature is one of the reasons why it is important that your employees grasp it fully. “Imagine a scenario in which you have someone in your HR department out of office for a conference, logging in to a Starbucks WIFI to access the HR portal. They’ve immediately put the whole office at risk because of misunderstanding the security of the network”, says Louis Finch, cybersecurity expert at Academized and EliteAssignmentHelp. Misunderstandings over network security can be killer and need to be treated with the correct level of care.

 

Updates are hardly most people’s idea of a good time. They’re often slow and put whatever device they are occurring on out of commission for the duration of the update. They also, a lot of the time, don’t seem to make a difference since most updates alter hidden elements that the average user can’t really see. However, running non-updated programs after a patch has been released is a major cybersecurity risk. It will be vital that you emphasize to your employees how important it is to keep their devices and software up to date at all times to avoid any potential security breaches.

 

Cybersecurity is a complex and intimidating world that, through necessity, is a part of everyone’s life. These five tips should help you to develop an employee cybersecurity policy that helps your employees to learn to defend themselves and, by proxy, to defend your company. Being clear over everything expected of them is the most important element.

 

Aimee Laurence has worked in cybersecurity policy and tech journalism for the past 3 years at UKWritings and she focuses on ethics and sustainability in technology. She works in freelance HR at the BoomEssays portal.