Must-Have Investments for Security-Aware & Productive Teams
No matter its size, any business that strives for success faces challenges from two sides. On the one hand, productivity optimization remains a prerequisite for growth. On the other, the scale and complexity of cyber threats are only increasing.
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No matter its size, any business that strives for success faces challenges from two sides. On the one hand, productivity optimization remains a prerequisite for growth. On the other, the scale and complexity of cyber threats are only increasing. Unsurprisingly, the most effective teams are those that strive to be productive while never losing sight of cybersecurity considerations.
In this article, we give a thorough breakdown of what management and team leads should invest in to nurture such top-performing teams.
Essential Cybersecurity Investments
Every step of doing business today inevitably generates data. It’s an invaluable resource that lets you tailor products better to actual customer needs, discover hidden trends and opportunities, and achieve sustainable growth more reliably.
Much of this data is sensitive. Customer records and personal information, intellectual property information, and financials are all valuable assets that malicious actors will want to seize. Lax security makes it easier and may result in losses that even established businesses will find it hard to bounce back from. Investing in effective cyber defenses should therefore include the following.
Access Controls
Exploiting improperly secured user accounts is among the most straightforward and effective means of conducting a cyberattack. Gaining entry with stolen or reused account credentials is far easier than breaking through hardened network security.
Consequently, access is the first aspect of cybersecurity that needs consideration and strengthening. Start by ensuring account resilience for all users. Every account for every tool you use should have unique, complex credentials backed by multi-factor authentication. Business password managers automate and facilitate this nicely.
Authorized accounts can still tamper with or expose data if given too many privileges. Implementing role-based access controls (RBAC) mitigates this by assigning appropriate restrictions to each role, leaving only trusted administrators with the most privileges.
Endpoint Security Measures
Each device that connects to the internet represents a potential attack vector. Laptops and PCs can get infected via phishing or ransomware attacks. Meanwhile, stolen unsecured company phones offer open access to confidential chats and data.
Endpoint security represents comprehensive measures meant to secure these devices. It includes automated updates for operating systems and software, antimalware scans, mobile device management, and encryption.
Internal network security tools
Other than having internet access, most devices are also part of a company’s internal network. Threats like ransomware are engineered to exploit this and move laterally, infecting one device after another. Internal network security measures keep this from happening, even if access control and endpoint security fail.
Internal network security is achievable through a combination of tools and best practices. Next-gen firewalls and network segmentation form the basis of this defense layer. Intrusion detection systems and network monitoring tools complement them.
VPNs
Your company may employ remote or distributed teams. Even if that’s not the case, it’s not uncommon for employees to access company networks if they have to complete assignments after hours or are traveling on business. You have no control over how they connect. Unaware team members could use public Wi-Fi and inadvertently expose company secrets to bad actors who may be monitoring it.
VPNs serve two important functions in this context: improved security and access control. They establish an encrypted connection that prevents eavesdropping, monitoring, or data exfiltration regardless of the network used. Moreover, the ability to route traffic from any network through fixed IP addresses lets VPNs serve as trusted sources while blocking all other external connection attempts.
Mandate the use of a VPN and invest in a reliable service that fits the business as it scales. Recommend individuals also protect their own devices, because one risky login from a personal device into business channels, and you have more to worry about than a personal data breach. Although VPN subscriptions are not cheap, team members can use cost-saving options like NordVPN discount codes or annual deals from other providers.
Backup provisioning
Loss of critical data, either due to cyberattacks or other circumstances, is a crippling setback if no means of recovery exist. Robust recovery means you have access to backup copies in different physical locations. At least one copy should be kept entirely offline so that incidents affecting your network can’t compromise it.
Backup copies need to be encrypted so that data remains protected while at rest and in transit. It’s also important to periodically test backup integrity to ensure recovery goes smoothly.
Boosting Productivity
Even though effective training is crucial, maintaining cyber resilience is largely a matter of implementing the right tools and procedures. Tools also play an important role in boosting productivity. However, investment here should extend beyond technology, encompassing people and processes as well. Here’s what to focus on.
Communication Optimization
Inefficient communication leads to delays, false starts, and time wasted on hashing out nuances in meetings that could have been handled via a Slack message.
You’ll need a dependable and secure business communication tool to handle check-ins, asynchronous updates, and structured chats. Similarly, you’ll want to reserve meetings for the few instances when they’re still warranted.
Knowledge management
Informal or undocumented processes are another major source of inefficiency, especially for smaller companies that are having trouble scaling.
Creating a codified knowledge source that everyone can draw from and contribute to helps tremendously across multiple operations. New hires adopt the correct way of doing things faster, making onboarding easier and wasting experienced members’ time less. Meanwhile, irreplaceable collective knowledge gets to live on, even when senior team members change roles or jobs.
AI automation
Most inefficiencies are neither evident nor the result of outright incompetence. Rather, they’re an amalgam of tedious but necessary practices that leave employees less time to focus on complex work and decision-making.
Modern AI tools go beyond trigger-based automation. They integrate and synergize with other tools to optimize and centralize workflows. For example, they can save hours of trawling through documents by creating accurate summaries. Some may organize and highlight important meeting transcripts. Others help brainstorm ad campaign copy or come up with boilerplate code, speeding up development.
Whatever you use them for, AI tools are a productivity multiplier that does away with human errors while equipping those humans with a better understanding and more agency in advancing company or team goals. The easiest way to see what actually sticks is to test one or two in your real workflow, since plenty of AI tools offer free trials that make it low-risk to try.
Conclusion
Taking calculated risks when positioning yourself in your market and dealing with competitors is expected, even encouraged. The same is never true when company integrity and customer trust are on the line. Fostering teams that take cybersecurity as seriously as productivity and equipping them with the means of satisfying both lets you safeguard your business’s assets while helping team members perform at their best.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from SSOJet – Enterprise SSO & Identity Solutions authored by SSOJet – Enterprise SSO & Identity Solutions. Read the original post at: https://ssojet.com/blog/security-aware-productive-team-investments
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