Are you conducting enough employee cybersecurity training?
Cybersecurity is an evolving concept, and it’s one that is often heavily influenced by user error and lack of awareness on the part of your employees. It’s not a new concept – every day, your employees are doing their best to avoid risky cyber behavior, but mistakes happen. A new wave of suspicious emails is sent out, but your employee doesn’t recognize it. Or they get so caught up in the busyness of their day that they accidentally click on a bad link. But a lot of these mistakes can be mitigated with good employee cybersecurity training.
Knowledge truly is power, so here are some tips for effectively handling employee cybersecurity training to help your staff recognize and catch suspicious activity before it’s too late.
Share Statistics and Discuss the Importance and Frequency of Cyber Attacks
Phyllis Newhouse, founder and CEO of the cybersecurity firm Xtreme Solutions, says, “There are two types of companies. One that’s been hacked, and one that’s about to get hacked.”
One of the best ways to keep cybersecurity and its impact in the minds of your employees is to share industry information with them. People love statistics. And if you can use them to highlight the fact that cyberattack incidents are going up every year, this will lend credence to your increasingly comprehensive cybersecurity protocols.
Employees are human – they want to know why they have to do the things you’re asking them to do. And rather than mandating certain practices and hoping for the best, you can educate them and allow your staff to see just how common this problem is.
Invest in Good Employee Cybersecurity Training
Just as employees want to know why you are making cybersecurity a priority, you must also show them how to implement safe practices into their everyday routines.
You update our technology and networks all the time, and your employees should be treated the same. Sure, sending reminder emails to lock your computer when you walk away and not to leave devices unattended is always helpful, but you’ll get better results if you invest in your employees so they can also be invested in learning helpful cybersecurity tips and practices. If you want your employees to help mitigate the risks of a cyberattack, you have to give them the tools to identify, report, and avoid malicious content.
Run Practice Attacks
Just like in any potentially harmful situation, training only gets you so far. Conducting simulations of real-life breaches is a great way to engage your employees and allow them to practice what they’ve learned in a “real-life” setting.
You can do this by creating your own drills with your IT departments, or you can outsource. Either way, your employees will learn a lot during these practice breaches, and you will too. You will be able to see, in real-time, where the weak spots exist in your own company-wide cybersecurity program.
Increase Employee Cybersecurity Training with CyberFort
CyberFort Advisors can help with employee cybersecurity training. Our Security Awareness training can help you:
- Increase ROI on technology investments
- Lower security risks for your organization – BEC/EAC, phishing and more
- Maintain or increase employee satisfaction
- Fulfill security awareness compliance requirements
- Lower administrative, help desk, and security support costs
Contact us at 1 (866) 221-4004 or email info@cyberfortadvisors.com to learn more.