As hackers continue to evolve their tactics, strong security measures alone aren’t enough to protect your network from cyberattacks. With 95% of security incidents caused by human error, it's also critical to raise awareness by promoting the right cybersecurity tips for employees.
Here are some ways to increase education, strengthen your training efforts, and promote smarter habits across your organization.
Reinforce the top risks and vulnerabilities of email
First, make sure your employees understand the biggest security threats to your company and the damaging consequences they can cause. For instance, cybercriminals often take advantage of out-of-date devices to carry out attacks. However, it's common for employees to avoid making software updates out of inconvenience. Therefore, it’s wise to reinforce why this practice is so important and encourage employees to enable automatic updates when possible.
What is a good password to use at work?
Weak passwords are another vulnerability that threat actors frequently exploit. To lower your risk, implement a robust password policy that requires longer and more complex combinations. Additionally, remind employees to use one unique password for each account and avoid sharing credentials with each other.
Finally, public Wi-Fi networks can make it easier for attackers to view and intercept confidential information. Prevent this by providing remote employees with a virtual private network (VPN) and explain how this helps keep private information protected.
Train employees on how to recognize red flags in suspicious emails
Cybercriminals frequently use social engineering techniques to trick employees into clicking malicious links or sharing sensitive information. Equipping employees with the right education and training on email security best practices can prevent them from falling victim to these attacks.
Teach your staff how to recognize the red flags of a phishing email. These include suspicious links and attachments, spelling or grammar mistakes, strange salutations, a strong sense of urgency, and requests for sensitive information
. Other suspicious signs can indicate that a system is already under attack, but catching it early can mitigate the damage. Therefore, warn your employees to stay alert for slow-running systems, access logs with unfamiliar locations, and constant pop-ups.
Companies can further strengthen training efforts through active strategies, such as phishing simulations or quizzes. These will provide more insight into the effectiveness of your strategy as a whole.
Make cybersecurity training positive and engaging
Introducing incentives can make your security strategy more successful. For instance, you might consider rewarding the employees who identified a simulated phishing email or received the highest scores on a training program. These rewards could be in the form of gift cards or company swag.
Additionally, it's important to keep these initiatives engaging. This can be accomplished by running a company contest or offering other activities that encourage collaboration.
The best approaches bring some fun and positivity to cybersecurity awareness, rather than inciting fear.
Boost protection with HIPAA compliant email
Promoting smart cybersecurity tips for employees can help protect against malicious threats, but human error is still ultimately inevitable. With email serving as a top threat vector for cybercrime, it’s important for healthcare providers to cover all bases with a stronger inbound email security strategy. That’s where Paubox Email Suite comes in.
Along with enabling outbound HIPAA compliant email by default, Paubox Email Suite's Plus and Premium plan levels include robust inbound email security tools that block malicious emails from reaching the inbox in the first place. Our patent-pending Zero Trust Email feature uses email AI to confirm that an email is legitimate.
Additionally, our patented ExecProtect solution quickly intercepts display name spoofing attempts. HITRUST CSF certified 4.9/5.0 on the G2 Grid Paubox sends millions of HIPAA certified and secure emails every month.
