Cybersecurity awareness training is one place where many companies lack and then complain when they get smacked with ransomware attacks and even severe data breaches. These things aren’t small, even if you own a small business; some have even made national news media recently. Many people want to train their fellow employees about cybersecurity but fall short because they don’t have a solid plan to do it correctly. We’ve talked about cybersecurity training in a nutshell in previous posts – this time, we’re going to give you some tips so you can improve it and train your employees the right way.
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It’s Not Their Fault
Most cybersecurity breaches occur because of a lack of cybersecurity awareness training if your employees are adequately trained and have the tools needed, your chances of becoming a victim decrease exponentially.
One of the biggest mistakes in data breaches occurs because the victim’s company blames the employee who falls for a malicious email. They may have fallen for the trap, but you weren’t doing the right thing when it came to training them properly. The situation could’ve been avoided if they had been taught better and followed our Cybersecurity Awareness Training tips.
Don’t Skimp on Cybersecurity Awareness Training
You wouldn’t run your business with unqualified and untrained employees, would you? Then you’ll want to get your employees the best cybersecurity awareness training that money can buy. Not only is the ROI exceptional, but the money you’ll save can pay for training many times over.
Don’t just think you’ll get off the hook easily because technology constantly advances. It would help if you stay current and on top of your cybersecurity awareness training, or you can become the victim no matter what you do. You can’t just train your employees once. At the same time, you want to ensure that you help prepare them the right way.
You’ll need to fix your mindset to help your employees that may have caused a mishap and let them know what the right thing to do was (don’t remind them of what they did wrong). Of course, if this is a repeat offender, you may need to bump up your cybersecurity awareness training more frequently, or there’s something wrong internally.
Cybersecurity Awareness Training Should Be a Top Concern
When it comes to cybersecurity, you can have all the fancy programs and software installed. Still, your employees will always be the weakest link if they don’t have proper cybersecurity awareness training.
Many businesses, large and small, sometimes forget just how the trends are going, and they don’t train not only enough – but are not detailed enough. Okay, sure, it may be boring to a certain extent, but you can get through it, and you need to share regular cybersecurity alerts so that they can see what’s going on. You need to take this measure of security seriously. If you hire an outside MSP (managed service provider) to provide security solutions, storage solutions, and even networking solutions, you still need to train your employees as much as possible. This way, they don’t jeopardize anything in the process.
Have a Password Plan
Weak passwords, old passwords, and leaving your passwords out in the open for everyone to see are security risks your business doesn’t need to take.
One thing that some companies do that proves successful is that they regularly update their employees’ passwords on their business computers. This will keep hackers guessing, and you can have your devices set not to let your employees change them. And whatever you do, even though it may seem safe, don’t invest in an external or public cloud-based password management solution (such as those offered by Dropbox and more). This may be able to expose all of your business passwords to would-be attackers, and then you may end up being in one of the worst data breaches or ransomware attacks ever.
Train Employees To Detect Phishing and Social Engineering
Hackers are constantly honing and testing their skills, and some are getting good at what they do. They produce convincing emails that are getting past email security filters at such a high rate that if you’re not prepared and aware of what you’re clicking on, you might end up as one of their victims.
You can also train your employees about things such as email and name spoofing to ensure they are getting an unusual email or phone call. Be sure you train them about phishing and what it involves. You also want to train your employees in social engineering (also known as conversation hijacking). This means that if someone ends up robodialing you, they might call or email your company pretending to be a vendor or another individual company that’s there to ask for your help or provide services to you. Your employees will be able to spot and stop the scam.
Cybersecurity Awareness Training From the Start
Learning to spot phishing emails and social engineering scams is not something to be left to chance. You’ll want to start your cybersecurity awareness training from the beginning. If you haven’t trained your employees yet, there is no better time to start than now.
Another thing you should always consider is that when you hire someone new, you need to give them cybersecurity training, too. Don’t just think that because you hire someone fresh out of college, they’re not susceptible to falling for an attack. Your company is new to them. Train them early, and train them periodically throughout the year. There is no reason you should relax regarding cybersecurity awareness training for employees. It could be the difference between keeping your doors open or having to shut them down due to a lack of oversight.
The Final Draw
Protecting your data is similar to a gunfight, and if you’re appropriately trained and quick on the draw, you’ll be able to shoot hackers dead every time.
Of course, you can hire a managed IT services company to help keep your business secure, but they can only do so much. It’s up to you to ensure that you have a cybersecurity employee policy in place and keep up with cybersecurity awareness training regularly. This will help you confirm that you are less of a victim of rapidly growing amounts of cyberattacks.
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