The Role of HR in Preventing Cyber Crime Attacks on Businesses

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The Role of HR in Preventing Cyber Crime Attacks
on Businesses
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• A continuing and growing threat, cyber attacks
  are a terrifying reality for many businesses and
  individuals the world over, and none more so than
  in the U.S. In some instances, cybercriminals are
  finding ways to infiltrate organizations through
  their own employees, and this could be through
  something as simple as an employee clicking on a
  phishing mail.
• At this stage, its vital that the HR team step
  in to help communicate with employees about
  cybersecurity, and how they can protect
  themselves and the organization they work for
  from becoming a victim of cybercrime. Naturally
  suited to partnering with IT, HR can help to
  provide employees with access to basic
  educational resources, that will help them avoid
  being the recipient of any kind of cybercrime.

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• Back up plans created by HR are essential
• In some instances, cybercriminals dont just
  target the personal information of individual
  employees, but of the organization itself, and
  theyre often able to do this by using the
  personal information theyve illicitly obtained,
  to gain access to other secure points that could
  harm systems outside of the organization, too a
  truly frightening prospect. Lets say, for
  example, that a cybercriminal stole the login and
  password of an employee, and used those details
  to gain access to critical infrastructure or even
  customer databases, highlighting the need for HR
  teams to carefully review the vendors and systems
  they work with every day. If timekeeping software
  or learning management systems were affected,
  what kind of an impact would that have on an
  organization?

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• Thinking about the possibility of these worst
  case scenarios can help HR teams to formulate
  more effective strategic responses to cybercrime,
  and with the addition of cloud-based systems, HR
  teams can regularly backup and archive critical
  information, such as transaction receipts and
  customer details.
• HR can help develop cyber training and
  contingency plans
• To best protect any organization from cybercrime,
  monitoring and security measures must be put in
  place by IT teams to prevent and detect breaches,
  while the HR team can add to these measures with
  employee training and contingency planning.

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• While HR teams arent typically made up of IT
  professionals, they are in the perfect position
  to conduct training sessions on cybersecurity
  protocols and best practices with guidance from
  the IT team and protect against any breaches of
  critical data.
• In the event of a cyberattack, HR must be
  responsive to employees
• Should a data breach take place, its imperative
  that HR take control of the situation and engage
  employees appropriately as to the risk, or
  perceived risk and what steps they will need to
  take next. Employees may be concerned about their
  own data and whether it has been compromised, and
  it should be the role of the HR team to address
  all internal concerns, along with putting
  meaningful response measures in place.

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• Cyberattacks are sadly here to stay, and if
  employers and their HR teams dont address them
  with the appropriate level of training, education
  and both protective and preventative measures,
  more businesses could fall prey to
  cybercriminals.
• If you dont yet have a robust HR team equipped
  to handle the issues raised by cybercrime, then
  it might be beneficial to consider outsourcing
  your needs for convenience and cost effectiveness.

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