Who Is Your Weakest Link?
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Are you the weakest link? Who is the weakest link in your chain?
At the risk of bringing back a certain game show from the aught's, this week's post is aimed at the place where human practices intersect with technology.
Every week, actually, it seems like every day, there is some news report of a scam here, a trojan there, a phishing attack, a hacking, it goes on and on. Stepping away from the technical defenses of firewalls, strong password hygiene, and updated anti-virus software, the soft underbelly of our defenses remain - and that is...us.
It's our habits that will protect or expose us to these nefarious actors. But you say, "I've gone to the Jenning's Technology seminar, I've changed my passwords, I've done all I can do!" But has your staff? Or your clients? The strongest defense only works if everyone coordinates their efforts.
Does your staff post their passwords on "sticky notes" on their monitor? Do your clients email their W-2s and other sensitive docs to you?
This week's tip is to encourage all practitioners to train their staff and their clients. How often do we immerse ourselves in our work, and our own CPE and neglect to pass the wisdom we gain on to our colleagues and clients?
Our own clients will tell you that we can sound like a broken record - "Please don't send me your W-2 by email, would you put it on a postcard? It's the same thing!"
"How many times will you repeat that?", they ask. "As always," I reply, "One more time."
Drawing from our military (Thank you for your service!), "Loose lips sink ships." For the cyber age, "Loose (finger) tips sink (computer) chips."