Cyber-attacks, ransomware attacks, phishing emails, and much more are now (unfortunately) part of everyday business life. To address these dangers and protect your company, various measures are necessary in daily work – both technical and organisational. The risks posed by organisational weaknesses or ignorance are often neglected in many companies. This is exactly where we come in.
we With the help of an organised IT security concept and regular IT training for your employees, you will achieve a level of security that helps your company confidently face today's digital threats.
Security Awareness – explained succinctly
In general, the term „security awareness“ refers to the holistic, cross-departmental and cross-divisional awareness that internal company information - in whatever form - is in need of protection. This includes intellectual property such as patents, recipes and customer lists, but also personal data, personnel information, financial data and much more.
Many „protective measures“ in a company, especially physical precautions such as locking systems, surveillance cameras, gates and reception areas, are clearly recognisable and therefore logical and comprehensible for employees. Other „gateways“ that are not visible at first glance, on the other hand, pose a major threat. In particular, new types of IT security vulnerabilities have emerged in recent years in the course of the digitalisation of company processes - as an undesirable side effect, so to speak - that did not previously exist in this form. It is now important to keep pace with adapted workflows and processes and to minimise the risks in everyday working life through a combination of various targeted and effective measures.
The aim of security awareness is to ensure that employees
- to effectively and efficiently use the technological possibilities provided for the company
- are aware of the variety of dangers and entry points
- be able to act confidently, with composure, and without fear in an emergency.
It is worthwhile to involve external IT security experts for a variety of reasons:
- an unbiased and safety-focused view to identify potential risks
- current expertise; both technical and in terms of attacker procedures
- extensive experience in dealing with cyber attacks, ransomware attacks, phishing emails and the like.
- The internal IT department's capacities will not be additionally tied up, but can continue to focus on the company's core business.
Phishing emails and more – how quickly you fall into the trap
In the typical workday, you're confronted with a lot: whether it's emails, phone calls, or meetings, everything just bombards you. In the general hustle and bustle of today's work, and the associated abundance of parallel information, it's almost unavoidable that things aren't always thought through to the very end and are „just quickly clicked“.
An example:
You receive an email, perhaps even with the company logo, asking you to quickly change your personal password for security reasons. Experience shows that people often don't hesitate, click on the password change link, and (apparently) renew their personal password. And that's when it happens!
This scenario is a classic example of so-called phishing attempts. „Phishing“ refers to the effort to trick employees into revealing personal information and login details by faking legitimate messages or websites, which can then be used to gain access to company systems. To deceive employees, urgent topics that appear important to the employee are usually used – this creates stress and encourages them to deal with the issue „quickly“.
The consequences of such attacks can be devastating for a company, its future, and its very existence. Successful cyber-attacks, ransomware attacks, and phishing emails make companies vulnerable to blackmail, damage their corporate image, destroy customer trust, and lead to the inability to work in certain areas or even the entire company. This doesn't even take into account potential regulatory consequences such as fines.
For this reason, it is of particular importance that you and your employees are prepared for such dangers in everyday work and know exactly how to react in certain situations.
Security Awareness – the solution for your company's security
To minimise the dangers described above, it is important to implement a holistic IT security concept within your company. Possible realisations may consist of the following content:
- Regulation of password policies, access rights, data protection regulations, updates & Co.
- Creation of an emergency plan for regulated action in serious incidents
With these measures, some of which are technical and some organisational, you can already lay the foundation for your employees„ security awareness. This concept, known as “sensitisation", is an elementary component in protecting your employees and, consequently, also the
Your company's resilience to ensure.
Theory and practice – optimally linked!
The security awareness concept should be followed by structured, regular IT training and IT security courses as well as „test scenarios“. This is because a major challenge arises from the fact that attackers are constantly developing new scenarios. Accordingly, continuous sensitisation and awareness-raising in the form of regular training and further education on occupational safety is indispensable in companies today.
This makes the theoretical concepts tangible for your employees and trains a critical eye.
The regular IT security training courses, which can be conducted in self-study or in a group - depending on the individual company situation - always point out current sources of danger and their development. This knowledge is a particularly important building block, as it enables employees to better understand which information and gateways are „exciting“ and understand which areas of their daily work should be carried out with particular caution. „Real world“ training in this area is also enormously effective, in which employees are confronted with „attacks“ (e.g. phishing emails) created specifically for the training purpose in their day-to-day work and thus become more familiar with how to deal with such scenarios.
The position of humans in IT security – risk or defence shield?
Since technical infrastructures can only react to potential (cyber) attacks to a certain extent, and since criminals are also continuously evolving and exploiting new loopholes, humans hold a special position and importance in terms of IT security. According to the
Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) Man is not defined as a „security vulnerability“ but as a „defensive shield“. This is because man – unlike a „machine“ – can think and act freely without a known event or specific pattern. This is also where the major advantage over so-called „artificial intelligence“ lies, which takes or recommends actions based on patterns, probabilities, and past events. Therefore, man – or in this specific case, employees – are at the centre of your company's IT security, as they are in a special position and situation to recognise and report anomalies and unusual occurrences.
For this reason, it is of such central importance to impart security awareness to your employees and to continuously sensitise them to the actual and ever-evolving cyber threats.
The key to this data and corporate security therefore consists of:
- Technical measures
- Working processes
- Specific rules of conduct
- and a coordinated and modern awareness campaign for people within the company.
Secure your business now, develop or update your security concept, and raise your employees' awareness of existing dangers.
