Introduction
No matter the size of an organization, every company is susceptible to a cyber security attack. However, it is up to the business educate their employees on best practices and ensure that they are fully equipped when they encounter a cyber security threat.
Today, most hackers use artificial intelligence where IT systems are manipulated to the point where human error is the main cause of most breaches. Companies should therefore train their team to avoid social engineering attacks and protect their data. We have come up with 6 reasons why security awareness is important.
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Training employees on different types of cybersecurity threats so they are well equipped when they come across it
There are many different types of cyber threats, however, teaching your employees to effectively identify and prevent security breaches such as spam is one of them. Spam can be defined as an unsolicited communication sent in bulk to a person’s email.
With a few simple tips and tricks, your employees can reduce the amount of spam they receive. One way to do this is by training them how to turn on their spam filter and ensure it is set to high. By doing this, your email provider will understand what kind of emails are considering spam and which ones are safe. Once an email is detected as spam, it gets sent to the junk/ spam folder right away usually. However, explain to your team that they should be cautious because some malicious spam is so sophisticated it can make it to the inbox.
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Training will help curb, minimize breaches and attacks
Breaches and attacks should be the one of fist the first things that comes to mind when it comes to security training for employees. When your team has knowledge of the type of breaches, it can save your company time and resources in case of an emergency. A data breach can be very expensive; however, security awareness is inexpensive
According to IBM, it takes companies an average of 197 days to identify a data breach (and sometimes to even catch on that it is happening). Moreover, depending on the severity of the virus and how much it has infected the network, it can also take an additional 70 days (approximately) to contain it. When your team knows what to do, and what to look out for it can help minimize data breaches.
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Bring awareness to the concept of social engineering and how to deal with it
Social engineering is a tactic that cyber criminals use to persuade and manipulate people to give up their confidential information. This information does vary, however, typically it is access to a computer, passwords and/or bank information. This strategy is used by criminals because it is an easy way to exploit the end target by presenting them with something that is of familiarity to them, so they are more likely to engage.
Some tips and tricks to share with your team are as follows:
- If your team gets a request for personal information or passwords, tell them to delete the request. No one should be reaching out to your employee demanding they share their password/ sensitive information.
- A common tactic that social engineers will use is by posing as tech support. Tell your team, that if they did not request tech support, yet they happen to get a call from someone claiming they are IT support, ensure they reject their request.
- Tell your team to secure their devices, by ensuring that their anti-virus software and firewalls are regularly updated. If they notice something out of place, they should notify management right away.
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Conduct effective training with your team on the concept of phishing
Whether your team is working from their home or from the office, knowing how they can recognize and avoid phishing threats is the first and best line of defense you may have. Phishing is the most used tactic by cyber criminals to infect a business. The following are commonly used ways for phishing attacks.
Domain Spoofing. This strategy is used when cyber criminals make websites and email appear as if they are coming from a legitimate company.
Spear Phishing. This concept is personalized via emails for a specific individual. Through social engineering, the cyber criminal will entice the victim to open the email by having a very persuasive subject line that will trick them to open it.
Whaling. The criminal will target executives with highly personalized emails that look legitimate. They may include false information that is recognizable such as an employee name or job title.
Creating awareness to phishing attacks amongst employees is critical because it educates employees on how to recognize and report suspicious phishing attempts. Additionally, training enables your team to protect themselves and the company by implementing the best practices they were taught in their training sessions. The fact is employee do not know they are the target of cyber criminals. For hackers, it is easier to pretend to be an authorized/ recognizable person from the company and target an employee in this way, than it is from the attack the network directly.
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To give your customers confidence
Today, consumers have become increasingly aware of cyber threats, and they want to feel secure and safe.
As your business is taking measures in, it should always do so with the costumer in mind because when customers feel like their data and information is safe, they are more likely to become a loyal customer long term. For instance, if a customer asks a question in relation to their data security, and an employee may not be trained or aware of a certain protocol, it may tarnish the image of your business. Since customers are more aware of data breaches, your customers will feel confident and view your business as more socially responsible. This is the ultimate image you want your customers to have of you.
Clearly, customers pay attention to security credentials. When you introduce security awareness training, your customers see you as more responsible. That can only be a good thing.
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Your employees can help with building more robust ways of protecting your network
When security training is introduced, it creates knowledge at every level of the business. A robust technological defense is a concept that is built on employee opinions, by setting up your team on a path to be more conscious of cyber security, data breaches and more. For instance, your team can learn how to acknowledge suspicious activity, how to turn firewalls on and updating software thus, leading to a more robust defense mechanism.
Conclusion
The main purpose of the training process is to create a sense of shared responsibility and accountability so that the company is safe from attacks due to human factor.
When employees know the different types of security threats out there, they will know how to handle the threat if they come across it which will results in minimal breaches. In addition, when your team knows the differences between social engineering and phishing attacks, they are more aware of what to look out for. Interested to know more about cybersecurity and ransomware best practices, get in touch with our team for a free consultation.