What Employees Can Do

As security threat levels rise and more viruses attack your systems, are you doing everything possible to protect your company?

What Employees Can Do

While security issues may come as second nature to you, remember that employees outside your department are focusing on their core priorities and goals for the organization—not yours. With this in mind, create processes to educate employees about threats, viruses and security vulnerabilities within your organization. Start by setting up departmental meetings to discuss privacy issues and what all employees can do to help the company stay secure.

You may begin by reviewing Website and email processes. If you have a system by which you track everything your employees do online, be sure to let them know. This will cut down on unnecessary Web surfing, personal emails and other online activities that take away from productivity and produce a potential threat to the organization’s security.

Also inform employees about email attachments. While you may have systems running that do not allow potentially unsafe or private attachments to be opened, employees may be unaware of the risks involved.

Let staff know that you have security processes in place, but it’s up to them to carefully review attachments or run them through anti-spam software prior to opening them. Also, remind them to contact your department whenever they receive a strange email or know of a potential security breach.

Once the initial educational process ends, don’t stop there. Create an ongoing learning process to keep security top of mind. This may include monthly meetings or newsletters that review current threats and activities, the latest technologies the company has implemented and other important security notes.

New-hires should be notified of rules and expectations at the beginning of their employment to prevent bad habits from forming that may jeopardize security. You may even consider creating contests or special events to build awareness about security and privacy issues at your organization.

While you can use all of the technologies available to avoid security threats at your organization, that is not enough. Your efforts are only as good as the people running and using the processes put in place.Without a solid team—and respect for each other and the business—breaches in security and privacy will undoubtedly occur. As a technology leader at your organization, it’s up to you to create practices that not only help increase security and privacy, but also inform and educate everyone involved on a regular basis.

Shane Caniglia is the director of technology at The Rich Dad Company. He can be reached at customerservice@richdad.com.