Educating your staff is your last line of defense. It could save you from unfortunate situations and dispense with a complete shutdown of your workforce or your productivity.

Don’t get me wrong, I really want to talk to you about education and not about training. Although training is essential for the growth and prosperity of your business, the right education could save you from unpleasant situations and exempt you from a complete shutdown of your workforce or your productivity.

Although we would like to avoid this situation, chances are that you will have at least one of your employees using a computer, a laptop or a cell phone who will have to deal with a phishing email, a virus or a telephone fraud. Knowing that you have in place an excellent antivirus, an up-to-date firewall and an anti-spam service for your e-mails, these essential and indispensable means will protect you from 99% of all attacks. Consequently, there will always remain a tiny risk for which your defenses could not have intervened.

This low risk of vulnerability is present in all corporate networks, it is THE security flaw exploited by several criminals. I am obviously talking here about the user. This one is easily influenced, emotional, impulsive and computer crooks focus their efforts on these weaknesses to manage to cross your security and thus cause chaos or extract large sums of money from you. These cyber crooks use cunning and ingenuity to induce feelings of guilt, insecurity or urgency in their potential victims. Everything is set up to provoke spontaneous and thoughtless action.

Educating your staff therefore becomes your last line of defence. It does not require any budget, software or service, but a simple e-mail or press release, 2 to 3 times a year, which will serve as a reminder of the importance of never clicking on a link in an e-mail, never opening a file joint that is not expected or with a potentially risky extension. Your employees should react to the slightest suspicion and should never hesitate to contact your IT team or your IT consultant. Who knows, this little release could save you from a major disaster!