Cybersecurity is an ever-changing and unique science. Although the quality of your managed IT services can offer a strong foundation for cybersecurity, you should always look to improve it further. This means having digital security measures in place that cover all aspects of your company’s network use and business model.
One way to strengthen protection is through employee training. In particular, training that focuses on security awareness provides a powerful barrier to cybercrime.
How Can Security Training Help?
Security training helps in three ways:
- It increases commitment to cybersecurity throughout your company.
- It offers practical measures for protecting data and IT systems from attack. This can include tips on how to avoid phishing attempts, cyberbullying, online identity theft and ransomware attacks.
- It provides employees with the knowledge to identify security threats that they may not have considered in the past.
Security training is essential for companies of all sizes; including small businesses in managed IT services or anyone who is responsible for protecting data or IT systems. This includes the CEO, management team and all employees. Security awareness needs to be taken seriously at all levels of your business.
Employees are not always aware of how cybercriminals target individuals as part of a larger data breach or ransomware attack. This is because cybercrime can come from anyone, including disgruntled hackers, malware writers and rogue nation states. Your employees need to be aware of these threats in order to protect themselves and your network.
Half of All Cyber Attacks Still Target Human Error
Security awareness training can help employees learn how cybercriminals typically operate. The threat landscape is always evolving, but it’s important that you equip yourself with the right knowledge before an attack happens.
A recent study found that security awareness training can have a significant impact on the cyberattack threat landscape. The survey conducted by Mimecast revealed that half of all cyberattacks still target human error.
These attacks are often successful because employees routinely ignore cybersecurity guidance, including emails containing links to potentially dangerous web pages. Employees may also reuse passwords across different business accounts and fail to update passwords for their home devices.
More Security Awareness Training Needed
Two-thirds of businesses do not provide security awareness training, according to the survey conducted by Mimecast. There are several reasons why companies don’t prioritize cyberthreat education, including lack of overall security knowledge within the company, overly technical security awareness materials and lack of resources.
A lack of security awareness training can make you vulnerable to cyberattacks. Hackers use phishing emails to trick employees into entering their login credentials on spoof websites, for example. Phishing is one of the most common forms of cyberattack. It usually involves criminals posing as a trustworthy source in order to steal private information.
Other attacks include ransomware, which involves hackers encrypting company files and charging money to decrypt them.
Online identity theft is also a common form of cyberattack that targets the employee directly. A person’s credentials can be used by cybercriminals in order to commit fraud through online transactions and steal their personal data.
What Security Awareness Training Should Include?
Cyber Awareness training should be simple, practical and tailored to the audience. The training needs to identify how cybercriminals target individual employees in order to compromise your business data. Your material should also include examples that are relevant to employees’ roles within the company. This will help them understand how they contribute towards the overall security of the organization.
Your training should also be ongoing, rather than a one-off session. Security awareness needs to become engrained within your company culture. Employees need to feel comfortable asking questions about their security role and reporting any cyberthreats they encounter.
Training can include tips on how to avoid phishing attempts, cyberbullying, online identity theft and cyberstalking. These are all common cyberthreats that target individuals. They can also include information on how to report a cyberattack and who employees should contact if they suspect any suspicious activity.
Avoid Security Awareness Training Fatigue
Security awareness training is an important part of your organization’s security posture, but it shouldn’t be a burden for your employees. That’s why it’s important to choose a training firm that understands your business and the cyberthreats you face.
Some businesses try to cut costs by providing their own security awareness content as part of a DIY approach, but these materials can be out of date or irrelevant. You should ensure that any material your employees use is approved by your managed service provider.
Your Managed Service Provider can also provide a managed threat-monitoring solution that will continually create awareness among your employees. This kind of managed cyberthreat monitoring gives you insights into current threats to your business and how your employees are responding to them.
They can also keep you up to date with potential cyberthreats based on information gathered from your managed security services. This will help you to pre-empt cyberattacks and stop any damage before it happens.
Organizations should make use of managed security services to provide ongoing training for their employees. A managed service provider can provide managed security awareness training, which includes relevant content aimed at individuals’ roles within the organization. This improves overall cyber security and can help to avoid fatigue among employees.
The Managed Service Provider can also provide managed cyberthreat monitoring, which increases employee awareness of current and potential threats. This enables your business to take precautionary measures in advance to avert any potential damage from cyberattacks.