When somebody talks about hackers, what comes to mind is highly skilled coders who constantly use advanced techniques to steal the information of a company/user. While this is true, sometimes even less advanced and simple phishing techniques like social engineering are used for hacking. These attacks can be carried out by hackers that are not even very skilled. 

One of the reasons that social engineering is emerging as a successful data security threat is that it focuses on targeting users or employees instead of a company or an entire network. The reason that employees fall for such tricks is their unawareness. Most employees think that it is the sole responsibility of their company to protect the data from hackers. What they do not realize is that they are the biggest part of the company’s assets that can be misused to exploit vulnerabilities. 

Such employees are risky liabilities. The situation is getting more out of hand since many employees have started working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic. Clearly, the only way to turn employees from liabilities to protective shields is by educating them about phishing threats and their role in protecting an organization from notorious hackers from the dark side of the web. 

When employees/users know how hackers target them and their devices, they’re more alert and they have a basic idea about what to do and what not to do. Some such dos and don’ts that can actually help in stopping phishing attacks have been listed below. 

Dos to Reduce a Security Breach 

1. Paying special attention to strengthening the password of a system. 
2. Creating separate passwords for all devices and using a password manager app to store passwords and generate new ones. 
3. Using network segmentation to protect work devices when working from home. 
4. Creating a separate login for guests to access the internet. 
5. Patching the router and debugging the devices regularly. 
6. Using a good firewall for added safety. 
7. Running active scans to detect viruses. 

Don’ts to Reduce a Security Breach

1. Not sharing a password between devices or with other people. 
2. Not reusing a password that was once used (an old password, no matter if it was strong).
3. Not opening links and attachments – even if the email comes in the inbox and not the spam folder – if they’re from some source that’s unrecognizable. 
4. Not using software that is not patched from the end of the developers. 
5. Not using work systems for personal work. 

If you can educate your employees about these dos and don’t, they’ll have better knowledge and better skills to understand how to dodge hacking attacks.