Which department is the biggest risk to your security?

All companies, regardless of their size, have some sort of organizational structure in place to help the company run efficiently and smoothly. Without all the departments working together, businesses have problems implementing policies and operating at efficient production levels. Just as all departments must work together to help the company reach its goals, they all must work together to ensure that the company remains secure.

Blame game

While all your departments are working together to help your organization remain secure, are there some departments that are posing a bigger security risk to your organization than others? According to a polling of data security specialists, finance and HR employees represent the biggest cybersecurity threat of any department to organizations. Finance was claimed to make up 48% of threats and HR departments posed 42% of threats.

The primary reasons finance and HR departments are said to pose a higher security risk is a fear that individuals in these roles will accidentally send confidential employee or customer details or salaries to the wrong people. In addition, they fear that these departments will accidentally allow malware to be installed on their systems. These results indicate that HR and finance employees are believed to be culturally less aware of cybersecurity threats.

Department training and education

Regardless of which department your employees are working in, it is important for all users to understand the importance and sensitivity of the information they hold. Departments need to know who has access and how it is accessed in order to assess what technology must be put in place to help mitigate the risks.

The good news is companies are paying more attention to cybersecurity than they have in the past, which is helping to close the gap between cyber attacks and the preventative methods that are being set in place. It is important that all users and employees, in all departments, be thoroughly trained in handling sensitive information and using company systems. Successful security training should encourage departments to set up intelligent, adaptive policies that help employees make decision that will ultimately protect sensitive and critical information, in addition to training staff to spot suspicious activity and issues in the system. While the training may be tailored to the specific area of expertise, every department and every level of management should be trained in security awareness.