Why HR can play an important part in your company’s cyber security

As a business owner there’s an unfortunate truth that malware and cyber attacks are becoming more and more commonplace across all industries and working sectors. What’s more, as it’s almost a requirement now for businesses today to have some digital aspects in our operations – be it staff tools, to payment facilities or a website – this can in turn bring extra cyber security risks.

However, beyond the obvious preventative measures like putting antivirus software in place, what you might not have thought about is how these risks can be mitigated by your HR team or HR setup. In fact, when you drill down into it, your Human Resources department can be one of the most vital parts in your fight against cyber threats.

Below we’ve taken a more detailed look at this:

The three main areas

If you are curious as to how exactly your HR setup helps here, we can split this down into three main aspects. These are:

• Training your teams

Much like how you would expect your HR staff to equip your employees with the information they need about your business and how it works, you can apply the same with training them with cyber security. This can cover everything from how to spot threats when online, to what procedures to follow if they suspect an attack.

• Procurement of safe digital systems

Any new digital systems or softwares that are used should be properly vetted to make sure they are secure and won’t compromise your business’s online integrity or data assets.

• Recruitment

Similarly to the above, your HR team or staff should also vet any new or prospective employees to help determine if they could be a cyber risk at any point during their tenure.

The measures you can put in place

With the above, if you’re not sure that your HR department is across this as much as you’d like, there are some approaches you can try that can help get them up to speed.

• Have a strict cyber security policy in place that gets regularly reviewed and updated in line with ever-changing and more sophisticated threats.
• Train and test staff on this subject and ensure they understand the right practices to use when online.
• Make sure any external softwares and systems you use have excellent security credentials, whether this is payroll software, email services or online training tools.
• Havetwo-factor authentication in place to provide extra protection for your systems; this can be more important for businesses that offer remote working.
• Add further screening for new staff and have digital NDAs in place for new starters and leavers.

Final thoughts

The above might take some time for you to review and revamp, but ultimately this will be time well-spent. To return to a key point, cyber threats are out there and if there are opportunities for your HR teams to help keep your business safer, making sure they’re in place can help afford you and your employees added peace of mind that you’re limiting the risk of a potentially damaging attack.

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