Empowering your employees to recognize common cyber threats can help your organization’s computer security. Security awareness training helps employees to understand vulnerabilities and threats to business operations.
Why should you offer cybersecurity training for employees?
The reason for educating employees on cybersecurity is simple: if employees don’t know how to recognize a security threat, how can they be expected to avoid it, report it or remove it? They can’t.
The 2019 State of IT Security Survey explained that email security and employee training were the most common problems faced by IT security employees. Yet, more than 30% of employees surveyed by Wombat Security Technologies didn’t even know what phishing or malware was. As you can see employees, not technology, are the most common entry points for phishers.
Employee Training and Awareness
New hire training and frequently scheduled training courses should be established as part of your organization’s culture. Employee training must include:
- Document Management and Notification Procedures
Employees should be educated on your incident reporting process in the event an employee’s computer becomes infected by a virus or any unexplained errors, changes in desktop configurations, etc. They should be trained to recognize a legitimate warning message or alert. In such cases, employees should immediately report the incident so your IT team can be engaged to mitigate and investigate the threat.
- Passwords
Train your employees on how to select strong or complex passwords. Passwords should be cryptic so they cannot be easily guessed but also should be easily remembered so they do not need to be in writing. Is always a good idea to enable Multifactor Authentication on their accounts.
- Unauthorized Software
Employees shouldn’t install unlicensed software on any computer. Unlicensed software downloads could make your company liable to malicious software downloads that can attack and corrupt your company data.
- Browsing
Train your employees to avoid enter on links that are suspicious or from unknown sources. Such links can release malicious software, infect computers and steal company data. Your company also should establish safe browsing rules and limits on employee Internet usage in the workplace. Employees should avoid using the company computer for personal matters.
Responsible email usage is the best defense for preventing data theft. Employees should know how to identify the scams and not respond to email they do not recognize. Explain to your employees to accept email that:
Comes from someone they know.
Is something they were expecting.
Does not look odd with unusual spellings or characters.
Passes your anti-virus program test.
- Social Engineering and Phishing
Train your employees to recognize common cybercrime and information security risks, including social engineering, online fraud, phishing and web-browsing risks.
- Social Media Policy
Educate your employees on social media and communicate, at a minimum, your policy and guidance on the use of a company email address to register, post or receive social media.
- Mobile Devices
Communicate your mobile device policy to your employees for company-owned and personally owned devices used during the course of business.
- Protecting Computer Resources
Train your employees on safeguarding their computers from theft by locking them or keeping them in a secure place. Critical information should be backed up routinely, with backup copies being kept in a secure location. All of your employees are responsible for accepting current virus protection software updates on company PCs.
Employees must have a clear understanding that ignorance, carelessness, and unwillingness to study will invariably lead to constant data losses and hackers’ attacks. Security should come from the top down and should be an integral part of the business operation. It’s a team effort, there’s no way around it.
Having a well-established cybersecurity strategy, and a cyber security training and awareness program to accompany it, are key to the security of modern-day businesses. Are you interested in testing and measuring the effectiveness of your cyber security? Fill out the form at the right and find out.
