The Importance Of Cybersecurity Awareness Training

Studies have revealed that human error is the primary cause for over 90% of data breaches. It’s a scary statistic for both large and small businesses. No company is immune to cyberattacks. In order to be successful, a social engineering scam only needs to deceive one employee. It’s a fact that a single mistake by one of your staff members is the only thing that is needed to compromise a whole network. If your employees are left unaware or unprepared for social engineering cyberattacks, then your company will be vulnerable. That's why cybersecurity awareness training is important.

 

 

Tips For Training Employees For Cybersecurity

The approach matters when it comes to implementing cybersecurity awareness training effectively. The objective here is to alter the way your staff do their daily tasks by informing them on the different types of cyberattacks and making sure they follow best practices so they can keep themselves and your business protected. An average of two months is required to form a habit and that means a one time training sessions where guests are swamped with information during the discussion and sent on their way afterwards. This approach isn’t effective.

Ongoing training programs that are updated on a regular basis is required in order to keep up with the continuous transformation of the threat landscape along with the addition of new protocols. Many people learn better with hands-on method. So, incorporating simulations to theoretical training lets employees perform safe online behaviour. This will help in reinforcing the training and in improving its effectiveness.

An overview of the various kinds of cyberscams as well as how they work should be explained well to employees so they would know how to identify if there’s an existing security threat. An in-depth training program must cover the different kinds of online security threats and how they are presented. This may include phishing, spear phishing, and other social engineering scams. It must also cover smishing, vishing, baiting, and malware. BEC or business email compromise as well as water holing attacks.

Phishing and Spear Phishing

It’s better to present examples of phishing scams to show what a fabricated text or email message may appear like, and explain what approaches are used in order to lure someone in. This may be an email needing immediate action, tricking users to clicking an infected link, or a much more targeted spear phishing attack wherein the cybercriminals tries to impersonates the company’s IT manager and gets in touch with a certain person asking for a password update.

Malware

Trojans are sent through email but they could also be downloaded by visiting an infected website that lures victims to take action for it to take effect. A well known Trojan is one that pretends as an anti-virus program. It attacks, damages the device, and steals information once it’s run. Signs that your device may be infected by a virus include slow startup and performance, missing files, error messages, low storage space, and crashes.

Ransomware

A malware program, generally a Trojan, infects a system or device by visiting a compromised website, or through a phishing email. Users won’t be able to access their data or system through encryption. Cybercriminals can use this to their advantage and against the affected individual or business.

Baiting

It is a popular method when it comes to the successful installation of malware through an infected physical media like a flash drive.

Vishing and Smishing

These are types of social engineering fraud wherein the attacker uses a phone call or SMS messaging to try to get access to financial or personal information. These strategies also depend on triggering a sense of urgency in the victim so personal data can be obtained.

Business Email Compromise

A cybercriminal pretends to come from a trusted company to trick one of your staff, client, or vendor into providing personal information or transferring money to the fraudster.

Water Hole Attack

This type of cybersecurity attack aims to compromise a user by infecting the websites that they frequently visit. The primary goal of a water hole attack is to compromise a legitimate website so they could use it get access to a much bigger network through the workstation of employees.

Benefits of Cybersecurity Awareness Training

1. Employees will feel empowered and confident through training.
2. Established rules and protocols lowers the risks of a data breach.
3. Security protocols must be proactive and adaptive.
4. Prevention is better than cure. Having a workforce that is security aware can help your company save money and time, as well as prevent lost of revenue and downtime by following a proactive approach when it comes to security training.

 

SpartanTec Inc. provides cybersecurity training for your employees. This training can be live or virtual. Contact us today to schedule a consultation to discuss this important training opportunity.

 

SpartanTec, Inc.
Fayetteville, NC 28304
(910) 745-7776
http://manageditservicesfayetteville.com

Serving: Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Florence