HR's Role in Improving Cybersecurity in the Workplace

The Role of HR in building Cybersecurity at the workplace.

In this digital age, cybersecurity is becoming a major threat for businesses. When information breaches, data hacks, and identity thefts occur, it may cause significant damage so it becomes extremely important for all the stakeholders of the organisation to practise basic cyber hygiene to ensure a safer workplace.

In an organisation, HR professionals handle a lot of sensitive business information which can cause massive damage if leaked. Thus, HR professionals have a significant role to play to prevent cyber threats. This article emphasis the role of HR in an organization's cybersecurity.

Before diving further, let’s first understand about cybersecurity.

What is Cybersecurity?

It's true that many cybersecurity responsibilities are entirely technological in nature. For example, there are certain procedures that may be taken to ensure that a DDoS attack does not harm your business. However, making your website secure entails more than just technological solutions. Because certain technology solutions are impregnable, hackers concentrate on the human element.

Social engineering is the most common cybersecurity flaw. Phishing is a technique used by criminals to persuade victims to install malware on their own computers. Without creating a single line of code, a hacker can gain access to your database and financial activities. They only need to dupe a key employee into handing over the passwords. Because people are a crucial factor in many cybersecurity-related concerns, an HR department's responsibility is to keep everything in check.

Here are a few thing HR professionals can do.

• Identifying an Organization's Risk Exposure: Before implementing any training programmes, you should undertake a complete risk assessment to evaluate your organization's risk exposure and level of cybersecurity threat. HR personnel should be on the watch for potentially dangerous behaviour that could lead to data breaches or cyber-attacks.

Unsecured workstations and misplaced ID cards, for example, all have the potential to cause a cybersecurity compromise. An unsecured workstation could hold confidential or even extremely sensitive information that could fall into the wrong hands, while a lost ID card could allow unauthorised workers access to your company's facilities.

A risk assessment is crucial since it allows you to tailor your training modules to the organization's specific needs. As a result, the correct people receive the right training while also allowing the organization's risk and vulnerabilities to be addressed.

• ?Employee Data Controls and Access: Sensitive data can be protected in a variety of ways. One of them is implementing various access controls for this information. Access controls are necessary for a strong data management plan to ensure that only a limited number of people may see or use the data stored on an organization's network.

The HR department can assist a company in setting up and implementing access restrictions. HR can gather the information they'll need even before an employee is hired or onboarded. They must also ensure that at the end of their contract, the employee does not have access to this information.

Fortunately, several IP rotating residential proxies and other digital solutions can assist them in doing so. HR can use proxies to prevent insider attacks planned by former workers with access to company networks.

• ?Helping in Security Policy Making: Every department, including HR, contributes to the development and implementation of organisational security policies. This ensures that the company, its clients, and its employees are always protected from various risks.

HR's role in policy development and implementation begins throughout the hiring process. There should be proper background verification prior any hiring. They must also provide and have employees sign a code of conduct before hiring them.

In addition, HR must encrypt all employee files and create employee access standards. When employees break the rules, HR must work with the company's management to resolve the situation. They should take part in the inquiry and help prosecute the criminals.

• ?Educating Employees: A Nigerian hoax email is less likely to be opened by millennials at work. This does not exempt them from attending a security briefing. Even if some employees are well-versed in personal cybersecurity, hackers in the business world are far more advanced. Employees should be well educated and regular training should be given to them to spot internet hazards in the best possible way.

? For example, ensuring that everyone understands not to respond to emails from the boss that arrive from an unfamiliar address. It could be a criminal impersonating a company employee in order to gain access to data.

• ?Making cybersecurity a part of your culture: The way your employees think, perform, and act at work is influenced by their organisational culture. As previously stated, a positive work culture may significantly improve an organization's performance, and HR experts are seen as the "gatekeepers" of the organisation.

? Making cybersecurity knowledge a part of an organization's culture is one of the best methods to improve data security. A determined effort to make cybersecurity awareness a critical element of company's culture can help company protect data.

HR professionals can begin by holding monthly "stand-down" sessions during which any suspected data breaches that have occurred elsewhere are investigated and the findings discussed with various stakeholders within the company. As a result, employees will have a better understanding of the risks and implications of cybersecurity breaches.

In most cases, cybersecurity has been taken for granted, if not blatantly ignored. However, with the increasing possibility of data breaches and malicious hack assaults, businesses will need to step up to meet this challenge and implement a stronger information security system.