The number of cyberattacks against small and medium-sized businesses has been steadily increasing, and staffing firms are especially vulnerable to cyber risks. Here are tactics that can help staffing companies contend with pervasive online threats.
Identify Areas of Risk
Staffing agencies have a few big areas of exposure when it comes to cybersecurity. Their own operations could take a major hit if someone manages to gain access to their data. Not being able to use a program or operating system may make it impossible to do any work until the issue is fully resolved.
A data breach can also compromise clients’ information. This creates the possibility of personal or business identity theft or financial fraud. A breach could go one step further and compromise the data of a client’s customers.
In a particularly grim scenario, the mistake of an individual staff member who is working at another company on the agency’s behalf may result in a serious security problem that causes immense or even irreparable harm to that company. Resultantly, the staffing agency could face liability.
In effect, assessing the full scope of risk and liability that staffing agencies are up against enables them to make well-informed decisions about their approach to risk management. Targeted steps to strengthen cybersecurity must adequately address every facet of risk inherent to agencies’ operations.
Use Comprehensive Monitoring Tools
It is imperative that staffing companies utilize advanced technological safeguards to shield their data from cyber criminals. Integrating monitoring tools into the programs that a company relies on most heavily in its day-to-do operations can insulate them from threats. Using MDR tools with Microsoft programs can provide continuous monitoring and generate real-time alerts about events requiring remedial action. Business owners ought to confer with their in-house IT team or service providers to whom they outsource IT administration about optimizing the security capabilities of their existing infrastructure.
Plan Development Initiatives With an Eye Towards Security
When staffing agencies are upgrading their systems to optimize efficiency, they also have to be attentive to the implications that a material change may hold for the continuity in their security protocols. Ultimately, they must carefully review planned changes before implementing them in order to ensure compatibility.
Create a System for Installing Updates
Staffing firms should establish a policy about installing updates as publishers release new versions of programs and patches. Security enhancements are one of the most common changes in software updates, and this is not exclusive to antivirus or other security programs. Any type of program that an agency uses in the normal course of its operations could expose its network or operating systems to a breach.
A systematic policy about updates ensures that important security fixes aren’t neglected. Having a means to enforce compliance with policies and assigning responsibility to individual team members or service providers will foster accountability, consistency, and timeliness with updates.
Carry Cyber Insurance
The number of insurance claims involving data breaches has been steadily climbing. Consequently, the cost of cyber security insurance coverage has become more expensive in recent years as carriers are wary about risk.
Nevertheless, having this type of endorsement may be a crucial protective measure for staffing companies. Given the complexity of their risk exposure and the high foreseeability that a threat will affect their business or their clients, investing in this coverage may be a wise use of resources.
Having an excellent cybersecurity plan and using advanced defensive tools may help to make coverage more affordable for staffing firms. When insurance carriers see that firms are taking appropriate steps to protect themselves, they will perceive them as being less high-risk than companies that aren’t assigning the right level of priority to this formidable threat.
