The summer vacations have begun and your employees will be going on a trip. Between employees not fully picking up the phone and looking at their email from insecure networks or using temporary employees who aren’t trained on cyber attacks, cybersecurity threats are going to be more prevalent than ever. But don’t panic, you can control this through awareness, education and employee training.

Take the time to train your temporary employees on cybersecurity threats. This investment will more than pay for itself and save you from unpleasant surprises. Interns or new graduates who are doing their very first experience are the least educated about the rules of business and the risks of attacks by cybercriminals. If you lack the time and resources to conduct a comprehensive training of cybersecurity procedures, consider seeking help from an outside firm. To learn more, we invite you to visit our page dedicated to employee cybersecurity training.  

Similarly, it’s up to the company to educate employees before they leave on vacation about the risks of data leakage and the safe behaviors to adopt. For example, if employees take all their work devices with them (computer, cell phone, etc.), they could have them stolen, which could lead to the resale of client files, the dissemination of confidential information, identity theft, etc. Let’s imagine that employees only use their personal cell phone to check their emails, the risk is also present if they connect to an unsafe public wifi. To counter these risky behaviors, awareness is the best way to anticipate a possible cyber attack. You can also cut off access to the company network to your employees on vacation.

You can remind your employees of a few basics in order to leave on vacation with peace of mind. First, secure access to different devices and platforms with complex and unique passwords. If they must work from a public place, it is essential to connect to a secure and non-public network. In addition, they can use a screen protection system so that it is visible only to them and not visible to people around (this will avoid prying eyes). In order to disconnect and avoid working from their vacation location, you can ask the employee who is taking time off to make a list of reasons why other employees can contact them.

Applying all of these tips limits the risk of fraud even though there is no such thing as zero risk. Through cybersecurity awareness and training, everyone will be able to enjoy the summer vacations with peace of mind.