With the summer nearly over, I thought I would kick-off the new season of cyber security articles with a look at some of the simple ways you can improve the cyber and information security in your office and help to prevent information leaking out of your organisation. Some of the things I am going to cover may seem too obvious, but I have encountered many of them and others have caused major data breaches which made the news.
But I work from home and do not have an office!
That is a good point, but if you do not want that top secret budget report to become the scrap paper used to write tomorrow’s shopping list, read on.
Information Security – Let’s start with that shopping list.
How can your top-secret report end up doing the rounds at Aldi – easy. Just leave a copy of it by the printer your family shares. But you always collect your printing promptly. Do you? Or do you make a coffee on the way and in the meantime, your son has printed his homework, moved your report, and your significant other has swiped a sheet for the shopping list.
Some communication about work boundaries and information security with the people you live with and moving the printer nearer to you can solve the shopping list issue* and can prevent that information security breach.
Information Security in a bigger office.
In a bigger office a badly managed shared printer located in a well-trafficked, non-secure area of a big office will pose a much greater information leak risk. I had a situation when conducting an IT and Cyber Security Audit, where the shared printer was in a corridor where members of the public walked past it when in the office on business. Generally, they were escorted to the meeting rooms, but as the staff members were completing their notes after the interviews, these people were often allowed to walk out on their own past this printer. PIN controls on the printer slowed the workflow – this was the main complaint by the staff – but improved the security of the personal information this firm needed to do their work.
Next
Laying about.
Clive Catton MSc (Cyber Security) – by-line and other articles
* We use a shared Apple “Notes” shopping list, no paper required.
Further Reading
Where are the boundaries for your cyber security? – CyberAwake
What is involved in an IT and Cyber Security Audit? | Octagon Technology
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
