When most people think about IT security, they think about all of the hardware and software that protects the data from outside eyes.
In actuality, the greatest access point to your company data is often overlooked: the employees of the company.
Simply put, building a human firewall is the practice of developing a security conscious mindset for all employees with access to sensitive information.
Reluctance to train employees this way is the reason why phishing remains the most common and successful tactic for attacking small businesses.
The employees at your company are a much more common target than the system itself. Sensitive information is only as secure as the least secure human who has access.
This is why it is important to build a culture in the workplace around security awareness and to think twice before distributing information, and what is commonly referred to as your Human Firewall.
Simple steps and tasks can contribute plenty to building a human firewall. Things such as training employees to identify phishing attacks, or to evaluate who has access to what data are good starting points.
Here are three ways you can start creating your strong Human Firewall:
Make People Care About Cybersecurity
A key element of building an effective human firewall is to make you employees care about cybersecurity. Many companies make the classic training mistake of pushing lots of information at their employees without first taking the time to help them understand why the topic matters or why it should be relevant to them.
If employees don’t care about a subject, they won’t take the time to absorb the information you’re providing, no matter how comprehensive or accurate.
No need to check the box in sending your communications about security. Take the time necessary to explain the details about security, and what things employees need to wary of when distributing sensitive company information.
Build Awareness & Knowledge
Once people care, it’s possible to start building a level of awareness and knowledge that will ultimately drive real change in individual and group behaviors over time.
Here, it’s important to design a program based on methods that actually work, rather than a “one and done” approach that simply ticks the “training” box.
Unfortunately, traditional training methods are not enough to effectively protect against this threat because, unlike other risks an organization faces, this one requires every employee to be in a constant state of alert. Employees must adopt a questioning attitude that will affect every action they perform each day.
Measure & Monitor
When driving behavior change, there is no magic bullet. Progress will happen over time, and different methods will prove more effective than others for your company, culture, risk profile, and employee base.
Over time, your programs will also need to be updated to reflect new risks, technologies, and threats.
Conclusion
Decision makers need to realize that classic, anti-virus vendors can’t protect their business from emerging threats like spearphishing, and the old fashioned firewall is no longer a clear line between clean and dirty networks.
To truly protect your corporate data, all employees must be taught to think like security professionals, or at least be cautious enough to think twice before acting.
For example, they must treat every email in their inbox with care, and avoid clicking links that appear suspicious, out of context, or plain out of the ordinary.
When employees are properly prepared to participate in their company’s cyber security program, they will be strongly motivated to safeguard company systems and information, recognizing that they play an important role in keeping data and systems safe and secure.
