While digitalization is on the rise, many businesses and Canadian employees do not feel prepared for the challenges and threats that are unique to cybersecurity.
According to a survey by The Digital Citizen, 60 per cent of employees have not received cybersecurity training even though data breaches and attacks are on the rise.
Scalar Decisions delves deeper into how aware and prepared Canadian employees feel when facing the unique cybersecurity and cloud security challenges of the digital era.
Many organizations, regardless of their size, are facing frequent cybersecurity threats and increasingly expensive data breaches. Hackers are evolving their tactics, meaning that even a company that’s been prepared in the past can be breached.
The survey states that many Canadian employees do not feel confident dealing with cybersecurity threats and do not receive enough training to know what to do when one occurs.
When breaking these statistics down further, around 82 per cent of employees in Atlantic Canada and about 80 per cent of employees in British Columbia feel the most prepared to deal with cybersecurity threats. 64 per cent of employees in Quebec and 74 per cent of employees in Alberta feel the least prepared. Employees in Alberta expressed the highest rates of at-home threats at 36 per cent, while those in Quebec were the least likely at 26 per cent.
It is a company’s responsibility to ensure that all employees are properly equipped and educated to deal with unique security challenges, which has become a necessity in this new digital age.
“As the threat landscape continues to evolve, the lines between workplace and personal security risk blur; training and preparation is key to help employees become better digital citizens,” said Theo Van Wyk, Chief Technology Officer of Scalar.
According to an earlier Scalar study, 100 percent of organizations surveyed experienced a cyber-attack, at an average of 12.5 attacks per year, proving that cybersecurity threats and cloud security attacks are prevalent in Canadian workplaces. Even with this concerning statistic, about seven per cent of respondents indicated their organizations do not take any measures at all to prevent attacks.
Canadian companies must prepare to better future proof their employees to prevent attacks. About 57 percent of employees who do not receive cybersecurity training at work expressed that they would like to be trained, and around 67 percent of people trained desired additional training. A majority of employees (79 percent) who received training also stated that it helped them detect and mitigate threats in the workplace, such as phishing, spam, viruses, and malware. It is equally important to train employees regularly; according to statistics, 57 percent received training only once during a calendar year, and sometimes less frequently than that.
Every company should consider training their employees on how to create a secure document management system that gives them more control over their private information and protects them against cybersecurity threats.
A secure document management system provides a full audit trail on all files, documenting who made edits and what changes have been made while keeping a fully accessible log of all previous versions. It also allows administrators to set up system permissions for everything from folders and down to individual documents, meaning only authorized personnel have access to those files. This prevents sensitive data from getting into the wrong hands and significantly reduces the risk of data breaches.
A company must also shred their documents to minimize all security risks. Many laws regulate and enforce standards for maintaining information privacy during the disposal process. Most commercial paper shredding providers give a business a Certificate of Destruction so that they’re ensured that the provider has met all privacy requirements and standards outlined in information privacy laws. Professional shredding services also protect a business’ reputation by following a strict procedure and process to make sure their information is not leaked to the public.
Simply put, a document management system enables employees to organize and distribute documents across the organization to better help within daily functions. Employees can easily share documents with the right people, store and access information for later use, and secure documents according to standardized compliance rules without the fear of cybersecurity threats.
To learn more about how to protect your company, click here.