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Keep Your Business Compliant By Following These Tips
Compliance is incredibly important for any business. A failure to remain compliant can spell doom for any business, regardless of size. Being compliant is the act of following certain established rules, regulations, laws and guidelines. But what many business owners don’t realize is that compliance and security go hand in hand. Compliance is in place to prevent security breaches and give guidelines for what to do if a breach does occur.
Your company won’t become compliant on its own, though. It often takes plenty of time, effort and money to ensure that your business stays compliant, especially given how rapidly technology advances. Twenty-five years ago, you wouldn’t have had to worry about many of the issues that plague business owners these days because the Internet was nowhere near as developed as it is now.
But times have changed, and your business has to change with it or you will fall victim to cyber-attacks. Before you spend time and money trying to figure out if your business is compliant or not, you should ask yourself some questions.
After you’ve answered these questions, you’ll have a better idea of what needs to be done to ensure your business stays compliant. You may be thinking you need to rush out and buy the necessary technology and equipment to fill any holes, but you should focus on your team more than anything else.
According to a study by IBM, 95% of cyber security breaches stem from human error. We’ve talked at length about the importance of training your employees to be cyber-secure, but the reality is that employees who have not bought into a cyber-secure culture are putting your business at risk. You must have some type of employee training in place so they can learn all they can about cyber security and keeping your business protected. Without proper training, you cannot expect your employees to be inherently cyber-secure.
After you’ve fully trained your employees, you can put more focus into bringing in the proper technology and equipment to plug any lapses in your compliance plan. If you don’t have antivirus software or firewalls, you should invest in them before anything else. Once those are in place, you can focus on a few specific pieces of technology to make your business more compliant.
One of the best investments you can make is to put an e-mail spam filter in place. Though your employees will be trained and hopefully well-versed in cyber security, mistakes can still happen. E-mail-based phishing attacks are one of the easiest ways for a cybercriminal to gain access to your company’s valuable information. All it takes is one click on the wrong link to compromise the entire network. With a filter, you won’t have to worry about your employees accidentally clicking on a sketchy e-mail because it will never make it to their mailbox in the first place.
Additionally, you should also introduce strong security password practices as well as multifactor authentication. Part of your training for your employees should include tips and strategies for creating strong passwords. Oftentimes, people will use the same passwords for every account, which can leave your business vulnerable if one of their other accounts is compromised. Multifactor authentication takes this step to the next level since your employees will also receive a text message authorizing their login into their e-mail or other accounts. It’s a simple way to ensure your bases are covered.
Staying compliant is an extremely important part of your business. It helps protect you and everyone who works for, or does business with, your company. However, it takes time to put these practices into place. If you feel like you don’t have time to get your cyber security measures in place or if you simply need more information about managed services providers, give us a call. We would be glad to help you with your cyber security or compliance needs.
5 Tips To Spot Candidates With The Right And Wrong Stuff
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Carter Cast, the author behind The Right – And Wrong – Stuff: How Brilliant Careers Are Made And Unmade. Hiring success has a great influence on career success, and we discussed five negative archetypes that confront employers while filling a job opening. Together, we discovered some telltale signs that your interviewee may fall into one of these categories.
Captain Fantastic
While it might seem like “Captain Fantastic” would be a vital part of your team, they often cause division. Someone who is a Captain Fantastic is usually overambitious and has no qualms about stepping on others to get ahead. If you’re interviewing a candidate and they mention that their greatest accomplishments revolve around beating others rather than delivering value or developing teams, you probably have a Captain Fantastic on your hands.
Solo Flier
Have you ever worked with someone who thinks their way is the best and only way to do something? It’s very frustrating. While this type works well individually, they can be detrimental to a team environment. They usually claim to have no time or were too busy to accomplish their tasks; in reality, they may fail to hire and delegate properly. I’ve met with many people who fit this category and end up leaving their job due to burnout after taking on too much work.
Version 1.0
Change is a necessity in the workplace, but sometimes people prefer to stick to their routines. To spot these people in interviews, listen to their stories and pay attention if they mention changes in the workplace and how they responded. If they stayed on the same path, that’s a red flag. I knew a manufacturing executive who failed to adapt to new technologies. This caused him to lose some of his biggest clients, and the business fell into a tailspin.
The One-Trick Pony
These people usually get stuck in a rut because they rely on their greatest strength to solve all problems. They will often aim for lateral moves rather than trying to broaden their horizons. I interviewed a one-trick pony recently who wrote amazing copy but struggled when meeting with clients in person. His communication skills weren’t strong enough to work with clients or lead large teams. His career became stagnant even though he was eager to grow and move up.
Whirling Dervish
Energetic employees improve morale and production in a workplace but sometimes lack the follow-through needed to complete projects. You can usually spot these people in interviews if you notice them avoiding your questions. They often come up with excuses for why they didn’t achieve results. Great ideas and strong morale do not make up for a lack of completion.
With knowledge of these archetypes, you can avoid hiring the wrong candidate for your team and instead focus on finding the perfect fit.
Dr. Geoff Smart is the chairman and founder of ghSMART, a leadership consulting firm that exists to help leaders amplify their positive impact on the world. Dr. Smart and his firm have published multiple New York Times best-sellers. He stays active in his community and has advised many government officials.
The Not sure what backup & disaster recovery resources are necessary to keep your organization protected?
This blog outlines 3 ways to determine the tools and services best suited to your business.
Watch the Video Here:
What Kind Of Content Should Be Included In A Security Awareness Training Program?
Most people would agree that everyone who has access to technology needs some kind of awareness when it comes to cyber-threats and how to respond to them. But a major challenge is determining how to go about creating a program where the content is meaningful while also not overwhelming staff or taking too much time away from day-to-day activities.
What’s the right approach?
Training needs, like anything else, will vary from place to place. For the most businesses, security awareness training only needs to focus on a few basic issues for most staff:
There are many other basic topics to go over, but the overall goal of a Security Awareness program is not to create security engineers. You want a staff that is mindful about their use of data and computing devices and helps support your security efforts. These kinds of topics do not take much time on a regular basis to review.
