With threats constantly on the rise, cybersecurity has never been more important. Unfortunately, it’s also something that has never been harder to ensure. While there is no such thing as bulletproof defenses, there are strategies you can adopt to limit your risk. Today, we’re sharing some of those strategies with you, so you can teach your staff about appropriate cybersecurity.

Ensure That There Are Appropriate Back Ups For Everything

First of all, it’s important to ensure that staff members are keeping appropriate backups of all important files. There was once a time when this was done on floppy disks, then external hard drives. However, these methods were always flawed as they left users open to risk from hardware malfunctions. Nowadays, cloud-based cyber disaster recovery platforms provide flawless backup support, ensuring everything is safely stored and ready to roll should you need to access it.

Don’t Keep Your Company-Assigned Passwords

When new employees join a company, they are likely to be assigned passwords for devices and accounts. Unfortunately, these passwords are often quite easy to guess and nowhere near secure.

Because of this, the first thing all new hires should be instructed to do is to change their passwords to unique and complex combinations. This also helps you track accountability within your organization, as a unique password means there’s next to no chance of employees accessing each other’s accounts.

Ensure All Software Is Kept Up To Date

It is also important that staff understand exactly how vital it is to keep software up to date. Updates often carry security patches that will help protect your device and network from attack, particularly in regards to your operating system, so staying on top of this is a must. We generally suggest having these updates set to be automatic, but if this isn’t possible, make sure your team is checking and updating regularly.

Have Separate Storage For Collateral Shared Externally

Your staff may need to share assets with external agencies in order to complete their work. This is particularly prominent in marketing, where it’s common to have a shared drive that your creative design agency or freelancers can access.

While there’s nothing wrong with storing this information on your internal server, it pays to have it sit in a separate location. That way, if a malicious party ever gains access to the server, they won’t be able to get into your system.

Only Use Software For Its Intended Purposes

Unless they’re working with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, there’s a good chance that the programs you and your team are using have a single, set purpose. Using things in ways they were not intended to be used can open you up to security breaches, so it is important to ensure everyone knows to stick to the developer’s recommendations.

Always Invite Collaborators With Guest Accounts

Finally, whenever anyone outside of your business requires access to assets or dashboards, it is vital that your staff members invite them to the platform under a guest account rather than sharing their own. This allows full control over what can be accessed and edited and helps protect your data privacy. This point also comes back to tracing any issues that may occur, so it is a good idea to point this out to staff as well.

Keeping on top of your cybersecurity is vital in today’s business landscape. By teaching your staff about the points on this list, you’ll be making a good start. However, caution is no substitute for proper protection. Ensure that you have appropriate security software in addition to this training, and always keep everything up to date.