Is your company’s intellectual property (IP) or sensitive information being leaked inadvertently?

With technology permitting everyone to work from anywhere and cyber criminals trolling to find weak links or easy access points, we need to be more vigilant than ever with how and where we use company technology.

Cyber Security training helps bring awareness to these weaknesses within an organization.

We are all very aware of phishing attacks through emails and texts, the need for strong passwords and the need to keep them unique and secure, while not sharing important information through unsecure channels.

However, have you thought like a cybercriminal and considered other sneaky ways to get your company’s IP or confidential information? This recent article by CSO Online outlines a few different ways you may not have thought of, that could expose your IP and sensitive data.

Ways that we would never think of:

  • Participating in a Zoom / Teams call in a coffee shop or another public setting and having someone watch over your shoulder; OR for those wearing glasses, getting information from the reflection in the glasses. What information do you share on these platforms?
  • Sharing pictures of the company office party or meeting on social media. What is in the photo when it’s shared? Sensitive documents on the table or whiteboard or those lovely sticky notes with passwords on them?
  • How do you discard that old office printer/scanner? Many printers & scanners now have hard drives, keeping a log of all scanned documents. Stored company Wi-Fi passwords can be accessed and used to infiltrate your organization. Proper destruction of old office equipment is a simple way to prevent this from happening.
  • Employees sending company information or files to their personal emails so they can continue to work in the evenings or on the weekends.

It’s important to think of the different ways your company’s data and IP could be inadvertently exposed or leaked. Cyber Security training and conversations about how, where and when employees work are all important ways to assist in bringing light to these areas of weakness.