Internet security

Employees fear being blamed for company data breaches

June 9, 2021

3 minutes reading

We've said several times here on the blog that unprepared or inattentive employees are easy victims of company data breaches.

With so much news about cyber attacks, the creation of specific laws for companies such as the LGPD , and also the toughening of penalties for digital crimes , has made internet security a more common and widespread topic.

In this way, employees began to fear becoming responsible for a data leak or kidnapping in the company where they work.

Below, you will see some interesting data on the topic, some reasons why employees fear being held responsible, some forms of protection and also some useful materials.

Small business employees fear being blamed

Workers in small and medium-sized organizations, especially, do not consider themselves attractive targets for digital criminals, do not understand the full extent of cyber threats and are unlikely to report incidents for fear of being blamed.

According to a new cybersecurity report from Avast , 40% of company employees believe that mistakenly clicking on a malicious link would be their responsibility, so when it happens, they don't report it to those responsible.

The survey also found that 70% of employees were not aware of the threat level in their workplace, thinking that the biggest threat to their company's internet security is outside their organization and not dependent on their care.

Another important fact is that less than 18% of employees know that system and application updates are important to protect the company. Furthermore, 65% of employees think that only large companies are more likely to fall victim to a cyber attack, and that small and medium-sized companies are less at risk.

Although cybersecurity has evolved and become an agenda in meetings, this topic is still not widespread, or at least as it should be, in small and medium-sized companies. Various employee behaviors and actions can cause great damage to the company, and that is exactly what we will talk about in the next few lines.

Employees without knowledge

Managers and IT professionals still wonder whether training employees really reduces the risk of cyber attacks. And yes, cybersecurity training reduces the company's risk of becoming a victim on the internet.

According to a survey last year, the lack of awareness of corporate email security, for example (one of the channels most used by criminals), makes staff 5 times more likely to click on malicious files sent via email. Furthermore, research shows that 60% still spread malware to other company employees.

Each organization has the responsibility to provide employees with forms of protection on the internet, not only with the use of hardware or software, but also with training, after all, data loss can directly interfere with the company's operation and in some cases, revenue as well. .

Managers and IT professionals must also take the LGPD into consideration to offer knowledge about internet security to their employees, after all, they are also responsible for keeping the company within the guidelines imposed by law.

Management of company internet access

Efficiently managing company internet access goes far beyond implementing access rules or a good old company internet usage policy . Internet access management tools specific to companies are extremely useful and important for those seeking to remove responsibility from employees.

In short, solutions of this type offer a broad picture of the company's network situation and establish effective access rules, blocking websites considered harmful or even outside the scope of work.

In addition, tools like this carry some other features such as balancing browsing speed, internet access reports, blocking websites by time, firewall, secure remote access, among others.

If you are a manager or IT professional and are committed to taking this burden off your employees and making your company's internet access more secure, consider using an internet access management tool for your company.

Below, we have prepared some useful materials to establish a security and access management system in the company more easily.

Useful (and free) materials

The materials mentioned below are completely free and focused on tips and solutions for small and medium-sized companies. Download it whenever you want and share it with your colleagues and friends.