Cheddars, Macy’s, Sears, Adidas, Delta Airlines, Best Buy, Saks, Lord & Taylor, MyFitnessPal, Panera Bread, Forever 21, Sonic, Whole Foods, Gamestop, and Arby’s are 16 retailers that have reported a data security breach since January 2017, according to the Business Insider article published on August 22, 2018. Please don’t think your small business is immune to potential data theft.
Sure, as a business owner, you should trust the IT professionals to ensure you have the right defensive tools in place. However, it is up to you as the leader of your company to take necessary steps to address the major weakness in data security – the human ingredient. According to the 2018 Email Security Trends Survey conducted by Barracuda and Dimensional Research of email security professionals around the world, poor employee behavior was the top data security concern at 84% with inadequate tools only at at 16%.
Do you have an appropriate Data Security Policy in place including Prevention and Reporting Processes? Do you provide Training for your staff? Are you confident you can hold your team members Accountable to Reduce Risk? Do you know that having Programs in place reduce your Liability if such an unfortunate breach should occur?
Employee behavior is the top risk to information security. Be proactive, be prepared.
