Creating a Culture of Cybersecurity Awareness

In 2004, October was declared to be “Cybersecurity Awareness Month” – a time for the private and public sectors to work together in raising awareness about the importance of cybersecurity. With 89% of South African senior management and company directors saying they’re worried about their company’s data security measures cybersecurity is clearly one of the biggest concerns on the minds of executives this year,

While technical solutions including secure cloud storage can help to create a wall around your data, your company’s cybersecurity culture will determine who manages to climb over it – or even walk straight through an open door.

In this article, we take a step back from the tech aspect of cybersecurity to address the all-important question of company culture. Here’s how you can create an organisation that is data savvy and cybersecurity conscious to reduce the risk of a financially damaging cybersecurity incident.

Cybersecurity is a company-wide priority

The potential for cyberattacks is higher than ever before, with South Africa registering the greatest number of these crimes in Africa.

Despite the well-known threats of online fraud and data theft, cybersecurity is overlooked by many departments in the average company and is often seen as the IT department’s problem.

That is, until a cyber-attack occurs, and it quickly becomes everyone’s problem.

• There’s no doubt that having an IT specialist trained in cybersecurity may give your business an edge when it comes to threat detection and prevention, but that’s not all it takes.
• In order to create an effective company-wide, best practice cybersecurity policy, the top management of your business will need to lead from the front.

Making cybersecurity a priority in the boardroom and setting an example for teams and employees is the first crucial step in creating a culture of data savvy cyber safety in your business.

Cybersecurity can be fun if you do it right

One of the main reasons why companies have trouble implementing anti-cybercrime measures is that the training often seems technically complicated and boring to employees who don’t have a strong IT background.

The fact that most cyberattacks take place through social engineering means that there’s usually a fascinating story behind them.

Engaging your marketing department to collaborate with IT or your cybersecurity consultant to create engaging materials and company-wide projects and campaigns is a great way to start. These efforts should encourage workers to take digital security seriously and identify the tell-tale signs of a cyberattack.

Keeping it clean

They say that change is as good as a holiday and changing bad cybersecurity habits within a company by creating a culture of awareness could just be the break you need.

Cyber-hygiene is a mindset but it needs to be taught and using examples of daring online scams and hacking incidents that have an amusing twist can be a memorable and creative way to build security-centric habits.

Investing in the right cybersecurity setup is essential

A security-conscious tech culture in your business needs to be paired with the latest cybersecurity defences in order to create a powerful barrier against online crimes.

Our range of secure cloud storage and backup packages for households and businesses run the latest generation of encrypted data storage software to help you stay one step ahead of the hackers.  We also offer immutable storage as an extra layer of protection to help your sensitive files stay out of the wrong hands.