The Fine Line Between Caution and Fear: When Does Vigilance Become Paranoia?
As part of our Cyber Security Awareness Month campaign here at PureCyber, we are taking a look at different elements of cyber security and how we can help raise crucial industry awareness, from cyber basics (check out our previous article here), to phishing awareness and the impact of AI on both cyber threats and defence. Cyber Security Awareness Month is an opportunity to inform, educate and raise much needed awareness of the day-to-day risks to your sector, organisation and employees from the various cyber threats that exist.
What is Cyber “Paranoia”?
Cyber “paranoia” refers to an intense fear of becoming a victim of various cyber/tech threats. There are varying degrees to which someone could be described to be experiencing cyber paranoia, and in some cases the issue is a real, and psychologically crippling fear could prevent someone from trusting and utilising the internet and certain technology entirely. Of course, in these instances, it is understandable that cyber paranoia would be viewed as a big problem for individuals either in their personal lives or at work. However, that’s not to say that an element of paranoia (especially when working in a data sensitive organisation), isn’t useful in keeping you vigilant and alert to potential threats.
The line between paranoia and vigilance:
There is a fine and sometimes indistinguishable line between being cyber paranoid and cyber vigilant. What may seem like paranoia of potential attacks, phishing campaigns and general suspicion when utilising the internet, may also be a sign of someone exercising a high degree of cyber vigilance which is something that should be encouraged…especially in work environments where sensitive data and information is handled, stored or accessible.
Remaining vigilant and cautious is something we should all be doing whilst using the internet and doing so doesn’t necessarily make us paranoid, but in fact comes from a place of responsibility and alertness that is of the upmost importance both within cyber security and general organisational work where company, customer or staff data could potentially be breached.
That being said, it is important to keep cyber security best practice at the forefront of your employees’ minds without resorting to scaremongering and a general paranoia of trusting or utilising the internet.
How do we keep Cyber Security at the forefront or our employees minds?
It’s crucial that employees are aware of cyber threats in all their forms and in order to maintain a cautious and vigilant workforce, we have to make sure that cyber security and prevention methods are always at the forefront of the minds of our employees. Some key-ways to keep cyber security on the agenda in the workplace and ensure your organisation is consistent in their cyber best practices, you may want to consider some of the following:
Regular Security Awareness Training – Keep staff updated on the current risks and remind them regularly on how to report, avoid and defend themselves against possible cyber threats.
Security alerts and newsletters – Circulating regular security alerts among employees and keeping them updated on current cybersecurity news via newsletter can help keep the conversation around cyber security stay relevant and interesting.
Security Champions – Designate particular staff members to be “Security Champions” who can be a visible, point of contact within the organisation who staff can consult regarding particular cyber security problems, queries and support.
Create a Security Feedback Hub – This can be a digital platform for staff within your organisation to keep informed about any internal cyber security issues and concerns and allows for an open and consistent dialogue to be maintained around the issue.
Security Achievement Recognition – Incentivise employees to remain vigilant; report and maintain best practices by incentivising and rewarding this behaviour.
How can PureCyber Help?
Our dedicated team of cyber security and compliance experts are available to help secure your organisation and provide a bespoke, tailor-made cyber security service. Our service subscriptions offer a range of cyber security solutions for organisations of all sizes and scopes. From vulnerability scanning to penetration testing, incident response and active threat detection, our cyber solutions ensure you can operate safely and securely with reassurance that your business, employees and customers are safe from cyber threats.
Need a refresh? No matter what level of cyber security knowledge you have, it is always valuable to refresh your understanding of terms, topics and techniques. Our PureCyber glossary of terms is the perfect place to brush up on your understanding.