Data in online as well as offline were seen as a commodity by legal and illegal actors which makes the data a main target for cybercriminals and tend to play a crucial component in the commission of many cybercrimes, mainly because it is poorly protected and can be obtained illegally. Data breaches can occur offline even though the data is not available over a network. About 12 %  of breaches were due to Improper data disposal, loss, and theft.

Your company’s data may be at risk if you don’t secure your work laptop or phone. Do you think I exaggerate? But what if I told you that one of the top information security concerns acknowledged by around 51% of US small business owners is employee negligence? Every firm, from a data standpoint, has some kind of data that distinguishes it from others. This data could be a client list or a business strategy – anything that has commercial value or is a key financial factor.

Whether data is offline or online, hackers can get the data through the internet, Bluetooth, text messages, or the online services that we use. Most often, user behaviour and technological flaws together cause data breaches.

Company employees  data and Insider Threat:

Some of the examples are – Scamming of Twitter users by phishing employees in 2021, Dallas police department database leak caused by employee negligence in 2020, Snapchat data breach in 2016  exposing payroll information of some 700 current and former employees.

Threats to your data and security don’t always start on the outside and It’s clear that cyber criminals are growing more creative with how they gain access to networks and valuable data. Also, now there are actors within an organization who help in carrying out the sophisticated and malicious attacks. Insider threats can arise from either innocent mistakes or malicious intent, but if you are breached, all that matters is that you have been compromised.

The fact that more than 80% of firms lack policies that specifically handle insider risks shows that much fewer organisations truly have viable remedies.

Attackers targeting employees:

Internet of Things and the growth of mobile devices has increased the potential for data leaks which the attackers uses to make the connection between a newly hired employee and a partner at the office. They try getting the access through the emails which were not identified as junk email or identified by our mail filtering tools as phishing lures. Those email didn’t have enough triggers and it made it cleanly through all the protections of email and endpoint detection and response (EDR) measures we have in place.

Your employees are your first line of defense. Your business is at risk if they are unable to respond in a cybersecurity-aware manner. Many tools are designed with online settings in mind because the majority of data is exchanged online. But when data is handled improperly and privacy is violated, there are practical repercussions as well as online ones, including emotional ones.

You may be vulnerable to password hacking if you use weak passwords or use the same password across multiple websites. A data protection policy must be in place for any organisation that collects, manages, or keeps sensitive data. An effective approach can lessen the effects of a breach or disaster and assist prevent data loss, theft, or corruption.

Cybersecurity Threats for Employee :

• Identity Theft: Every employee is a potential entry point, especially critical teams that harbor sensitive information like privileged IT, HR, finance, or legal departments. Cybercriminals target specific individuals to get to their employer sensitive data. By stealing someone’s identity, they could gain access to their work account information and, thus, all the data stored within those systems.
• Password Hacking: We use passwords to protect nearly everything, including emails, databases, computers, servers, bank accounts, and other online accounts. Hacking passwords is a method used by online fraudsters and cybercriminals to gain access to secure systems. Their motivations are evil, and they frequently focus on using illegal tactics to make money.
• Phishing: Phishing is a type of cybercrime where a target or targets are contacted via email, phone call, or text message by someone posing as a legitimate organisation in order to trick people into disclosing sensitive information like passwords, banking and credit card information, and personally identifiable information. Phishing emails convince the recipient to download dangerous software, click on harmful links, or reveal sensitive data like login credentials.
• Ransomware: Malware known as ransomware restricts users from accessing their computers or personal files and demands a ransom payment to allow them to do so. Authors of ransomware today demand payment by bitcoin or credit card, and attackers go after people, companies, and organisations of all kinds. The practise of selling ransomware to other online criminals is known as ransomware-as-a-service, or RaaS.
• Malware: The malware that infects devices and networks is transmitted by malware creators using a range of real-world and virtual tools. Malicious applications can be installed on a machine using a USB stick, popular collaboration software, or drive-by downloads, which automatically install malicious software on a device without the user’s knowledge or consent.

How Employees Can Prevent Cyberattacks Online and Offline:

• Password Manager and 2FA. To save and encrypt all of their passwords, be sure that your staff are utilising password manager software. They ought to generate passwords with alphanumeric characters that are special for every website or app. For all employees, two-factor authentication is a requirement..
• Security policy. These policies are written commitments that state an employee will, for instance, treat all sensitive corporate information confidentially, proceed in the best interest of the organization during on- and offline activities, and notify the appropriate internal point of contact right away if anything suspect happens.
• Control Access. Customize the access control level to your needs. Access control is a data security procedure that gives companies the ability to govern who has access to their resources and data.
• Regular backups and audits. Create routine file backups for your website, sensitive client data, and other corporate data. Audit your business’s cybersecurity status regularly. By setting up reminders for staff members to change their passwords and check their work pcs, you may also automate parts of the tasks.
• Employee training. Employees should be instructed, for instance, to never open emails from what appears to be a reliable source. if the email address of the sender is unknown. Additionally, users need to be cautious of emails that have grammatical or spelling issues, use their last name instead of only their first, ask them to click on a link, or make any other unusual requests.