Keeping your Business Network Safe - The Role of Your Employees

In today's workplace, there is an important emphasis on network security. Businesses allocate time and financial resources towards security monitoring of their network infrastructure and peripheral units. But who is watching the company's most valuable resources — the ones most likely to create a security risk without even knowing it?

With a little bit of effort and a good amount of information, companies can minimize their network security risks by properly training their employees.

Here are a few tips to get you started.

• Develop Policies and Procedures
  Your employees need to know what your rules are regarding computer use and safety. Put it in writing.
  
  
• Keep Machines Clean
  There should be limitations on what programs can be installed on work computers. Some programs may open security holes that hackers can use to get to the data on your network server.
  
  
• Enforce Strong Password Policies
  The passwords on your company's computer resources should be strong (a mix of upper and lower case plus numbers and symbols).
  
  
• Be Smart about Attachments & Links
  Teach your employees to not trust attachments and website links in emails. Phishing emails use many tricks to appear legitimate, but they are not. Spammers even send emails that appear to be from friends or colleagues with the endorsement of a 'great' website to visit. Be sure your employees avoid these tricks.
  
  
• Be Clear about Backing up Work
  Let your employees know if you routinely back up their computer or not. If not, provide them with some resources to back up their own work each day.
  
  
• Speak Up about Computer Issues
  Tell your employees they should speak up about changes they notice on their machines, especially if the computer is running slow. That could be a sign that it has been compromised, and a hacker is using its resources.