By Richard Castle, PR and Communications Specialist for MIH Solutions
‘Cybersecurity’ – a word that’s become so commonplace in the world of work it almost fades into your subconscious. It rears its head when we bemoan the seemingly constant process of changing our passwords – and don’t even get people started on two-factor authentication. However, we at MIH can now testify that anyone who’s actually been hit by a full-blown cyberattack feels very differently.
We’ve been working with a client that’s fallen victim to hackers; to say it’s been an eye-opener would be an understatement as vast as the Cloud. For a business, being cyberattacked isn’t just a case of criminals clearing out your bank account – it means complete and utter operational meltdown. Only now we’ve seen it first-hand do we fully appreciate how highly sophisticated, devastatingly intelligent and ruthlessly incisive digital criminal syndicates are. In many cases, victims are suddenly and completely robbed or locked out of the IT systems they rely on to run their business. It doesn’t take a genius to realise the scale of damage, both fiscal and reputational, that it can cause.
Of course, setting up a series of hard-to-breach system passwords and multi-factor authentication, maybe involving a third-party app, is the first basic line of defence against hackers. But responsibility for cybersecurity isn’t just systematic – every team member has a duty to be vigilant. One click on a seemingly innocuous link in an email could open a portal which cripples a business’ entire digital infrastructure overnight.
That’s why creating a culture of cybersecurity in your business is so important. And there’s only one way to do that – strategic internal messaging. That doesn’t mean a couple of throwaway emails or annual training modules your workforce will view as a box-ticking exercise. In the digital age, businesses need a clear plan to drive behavioural change on an ongoing basis. Colleagues must be influenced to realise it’s in their interests to take precautions and, going forward, we’ll be using our expertise to advise clients how to achieve that.
What we’ve seen has left us in no doubt that a cyberattack has the ability to send an unprepared organisation to the wall. The clearer the dire consequences of lazy password setting, web browsing or link clicking can be communicated, the better.
It only takes one slip-up to open the door to cybercriminals and should the worst happen, all your native data could become inaccessible – including customer and colleague contact details. As our client’s business partner, the critical information needed to communicate with customers, suppliers, staff and others was backed up on external servers hosted by an approved third-party. Without that foresight, our client’s communications channels would’ve been abruptly cut off, with no way to keep stakeholders engaged, informed or reassured at a time of crisis.
How you communicate about your online defences is vital to create a culture of security in your business. We believe every organisation should have a clear cybersecurity communications plan – and we can help our clients to develop them. Cybersecurity isn’t just a necessary evil and hackers aren’t standing still. Their methods get more sophisticated and difficult to detect every day, so resting on your laurels isn't an option if you want to safeguard your business, operations and reputation into the future.