HR's Role in Data Security

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HR's Role in Data Security

A common misconception in many businesses seems to be that IT, whether in-house or managed, is the only department responsible for cybersecurity. After all, it ultimately falls on  IT to set the standard when it comes to cybersecurity, from setting policies that other employees throughout the company must follow to tracking and dealing with potential breaches and challenges. 

In reality, however, Human Resources and IT work hand in hand to implement the company’s cybersecurity programs - all while ensuring that each member of the team has the knowledge necessary to help protect the company as a whole. 

Ensuring Confidentiality

Over half of external attempts at infiltrating computer systems aim to uncover private customer or employee information. Hackers want access to that vital data to work their way deeper into your company or to take advantage of private information for their own purposes. In cases like these, HR and IT join forces to ensure confidentiality across the company. 

Setting Expectations

When it comes to data management, HR policy should reflect IT's cybersecurity best practices. When the HR team communicates clear policies in support of IT security measures, they’re much easier to implement company-wide. For example, regulations might include:

• How often the company will make data backups and who is responsible for ensuring that those backups are made each day;

• How often employees will change passwords and specific password regulations;

• Encouraging and implementing regular employee training so that employees know how to maintain security across the organization;

• Establishing which devices can connect to the company network; and

• Creating an expectation of how to respond in the event that an employee notices a potential breach or comes into contact with a phishing scam directed at the company.

When IT and HR work together to set clear, reasonable expectations that are well-documented, you can increase cyber protection across your entire company.

Balancing Access and Security

Each individual and department within the company may have different information they need to be able to access. Some employees need full access to as much information as possible, while others may need relatively limited access. 

For example, the sales team might not need to have access to the same data as the team responsible for implementing contracts or checking compliance. Likewise, the average employee does not need to have access to other employees' records. 

Both HR and IT departments should work together to determine what information needs to be kept secure and who should have access to it. Ideally, your company should segment its access so that employees who do not need to access private or confidential information cannot simply pull that information up. This helps to ensure that if one employee's account is compromised, much of the data throughout your company will still remain protected.  

Conduct Training

Your employees are your most effective defense against many cybersecurity threats, especially phishing campaigns. By partnering with IT to identify cybersecurity best practices, the HR team can then train employees to provide a vital level of protection throughout the company. 

Anti-spearphishing training, for example, can provide employees with the information they need to recognize phone calls and emails from a hacker determined to piece together enough information to threaten the company. When they know how to recognize a scam, employees can help protect your company. 

Beyond training, HR helps to implement security awareness throughout the company by actively promoting IT best practices to employees. Cybersecurity should not be a one-time event for your company. Instead, it needs to be an ongoing campaign dedicated to keeping your company as secure as possible.

When HR and IT work together, you can set the tone throughout your business and provide employees with the security-minded tools and training they need to help decrease cybersecurity threats.

Netflix phishing scam threat alert

Be vigilant when it comes to emails that you receive that are notifying you that your subscription will be cancelled, or your payment information needs confirmed or updated, or that your account needs verified – these are a few examples of common ploys to trick you into giving up personal information, credentials, or even credit card info.

Here is what the phishing email contains “Important: Cancellation of your Netflix subscription” as its subject line, the email stated that Netflix had failed to successfully process the recipient’s last membership payment. At that point, those responsible for creating the spam email made the following threat: “If you do not update your information within 72 hours we will limit what you can do with your account.” The email then directed the recipient to click on an embedded button called “My Account” so that they could continue to enjoy their Netflix membership.

 As always, when presented with emails like this, do not click on any of the links contained within the email. If you received such a message and you were concerned that it might be legit, instead of using their suspect links, just open a web browser and logon to your Netflix account that way – if payment info isn’t correct, you’ll be notified by the webpage.

If you are concerned with the risks that these phishing threats bring to your business and you’d like to do more to protect your business and employees, give RealTime a call.

 Full writeup by our email security partner Zix: https://zix.com/resources/blog/august-2020/fraudsters-abusing-legitimate-services-phish-netflix-users-credentials  

IT Breaches for July 2020

CYBERSECURITY NEWS

Social Media, Healthcare and Higher Education struggle in cybersecurity

This month, healthcare data breaches keep climbing, Twitter apologizes for its breach and more. Read some of the incidents in the articles below:

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Industry: Social Media

Exploit: Accidental Data Sharing

Twitter sent a notification to business clients last week acknowledging a data breach that exposed the personal and billing information of some users. The breach occurred due to an issue that led to some users’ sensitive information being stored in the browser’s cache. Twitter explained that it recently became aware of this issue. Business users were warned that prior to May 20, 2020, if you viewed your billing information on ads.twitter or analytics.twitter your account’s billing information may be at risk.

Twitter did not release an estimate of the accounts affected, but it did specify that only business customers were at risk, and only a percentage of business customers had any details exposed. The leaked information potentially included email addresses, users’ contact numbers, and the last four digits of credit card numbers used for Ads accounts. Twitter business customers should monitor potentially affected payment accounts.

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Industry: Healthcare

Exploit: Internal Email Account Compromise

AMT Healthcare revealed this week that it had experienced a data breach affecting a large pool of customers in December 2019 that was discovered through suspicious activity on an employee email account. The California-based company recently completed an investigation into the incident and contacted those who were affected. Potentially compromised data includes patient names, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, diagnosis information, health insurance policy information, medical history information, and driver’s license/state identification numbers.

Anyone that may be at risk of compromise was informed this week. Extremely sensitive data was compromised in this breach, and those affected should beware of the potential for fraud, identity theft, and spear phishing attempts that this stolen data creates. A filing of the account posted to the breach portal at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services noted that potentially affected patients are being offered free credit monitoring services. 

When clients choose to do sensitive business with a company, they’re also trusting that company to guard their information. This imperative is even stronger for companies that collect health information. Not only does a data breach cost healthcare organizations patient confidence, but it also costs a fortune in HIPPA-related fines. 

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Industry: Higher Education

Exploit: Ransomware

The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) confirmed this week that it paid cybercriminals $1.14 million to decrypt data following a ransomware attack. Although UCSF was able to detect the incident quickly, it was not fast enough to allow cybersecurity teams to quarantine the affected servers, and a significant portion of its medical school and research data was encrypted. The ransom was demanded to free essential COVID-19 research data that was captured in an intrusion on June 1. Reports indicate that UCSF was one of four academic institutions targeted in a single week by the Netwalker ransomware group.  

Ransomware is a growing menace to every organization, and it’s not just sensitive business or financial data that Dark Web criminals are after. Research data has become an increasingly hot commodity. Paying ransoms to cybercriminals to decrypt research data sets a dangerous precedent. Collecting large sums will embolden other groups that can take down big fish to score big paydays.  

Got Kids?

Three Summer Tech Activities for Kids

Here’s a list of some of our favorite activities to keep young minds active and learning in the computer science field! Just click on the images below and it will take you to different resources to help you keep your young ones engaged all summer.

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Free computer science weekly activities that release Mondays — some online, some offline, of varying levels of difficulty. Each activity features a woman in tech who pioneered innovative technology.

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Making paper circuit cards is the perfect union of science, technology, art, and design. For that reason, this activity fits perfectly into any STEAM or STEM curriculum at school, for library events, or just for fun at home. Let kids unleash their creativity as they experiment with paper circuit art and create a unique card that really lights up!

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These binary coding bracelets said “Kind” and “Superkid,” but you can choose any word you want to celebrate the amazingness of your kids. This activity would also make an amazing first-day-of-school activity to help children start the year on the right foot.

Dark Web Questions Answered!

What is the Dark Web?

You’ve heard of the dark web…but what exactly is it? Here are some FAQs courtesy of DARKWEB ID.

The Dark Web is a hidden universe contained within the “Deep Web”- a sub-layer of the Internet that is hidden from conventional search engines. Search engines like Google, BING and Yahoo only search .04% of the indexed or “surface” Internet. The other 99.96% of the Web consists of databases, private academic and government networks, and the Dark Web. The Dark Web is estimated at 550 times larger than the surface Web and growing. Because you can operate anonymously, the Dark Web holds a wealth of stolen data and illegal activity.

Free download

Download the free DARKWEB FAQ sheet now!

Download a free FAQ sheet that explains how to protect yourself, what it means if your organization’s credentials have been exposed and much more…

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Information courtesy of DarkWeb ID.