Most cybersecurity incidents don’t happen because of a failure in your firewall or antivirus software. They happen because of something a person did. Your team is your biggest security asset and, if they haven’t been trained properly, your biggest vulnerability.
Here are five of the most common employee cybersecurity mistakes affecting Canadian businesses right now, and practical steps to prevent each one.
1. Clicking Links Without Checking First
Phishing emails remain the leading cause of business breaches. Attackers craft messages that create urgency (your account is suspended, a payment failed, a package can’t be delivered) and train people to act fast without thinking. The fix is a combination of email security filtering and regular training that teaches staff to pause and verify before clicking anything unexpected.
2. Using Weak or Reused Passwords
Using the same password across multiple accounts or choosing simple ones like a pet’s name and a birth year, means one breached platform can unlock many others. Enforce a password policy that requires strong, unique passwords, and provide a business password manager so that remembering complex credentials isn’t a barrier.
3. Working on Public Wi-Fi Without a VPN
Coffee shop and airport Wi-Fi networks are unencrypted, meaning anyone on the same network can potentially intercept traffic. Staff who work remotely and connect to business systems over public Wi-Fi without a VPN are exposing data and credentials to anyone nearby with the right tools. Enforcing VPN use on all public networks is a simple policy to implement.
4. Leaving Devices Unattended or Unlocked
A laptop left open at a coffee shop, or a workstation with no screen lock in a shared office, is an easy physical security risk. Setting automatic screen locks after a short idle period and reinforcing a clean-desk policy in common areas reduces this risk significantly.
5. Sharing Account Credentials with Colleagues
When staff share login details to make collaboration easier, it destroys your ability to trace activity back to an individual and creates access control problems when someone leaves. Role-based access and shared mailboxes in Microsoft 365 eliminate the need for credential sharing while keeping collaboration intact.
The thread running through all five of these mistakes is the same: people are doing what feels convenient, not what’s secure, because nobody has clearly explained the risk or provided a better option. That’s exactly what cybersecurity awareness training addresses.
At PlexxTech, we deliver training that’s practical, engaging, and specifically designed for non-technical staff.
Ready to build a security-aware culture at your business? Talk to PlexxTech about cybersecurity training.
