Muahahaha the truth is out, and nothing is spookier this season of terror than lacking the knowledge you need to take on cyberthreats and stay ahead of the curve. Hackers (the ghouls in this scenario), are always developing new methods to dupe your team, which makes preparation tricky and ongoing! Don’t fall prey to social engineering or polymorphic malware! It’s time to take control of the narrative and consider investing in security awareness training. Read on to learn why this is a viable and necessary solution for your team.
What is Security Awareness Training?
Security Awareness Training teaches your employees how to recognize cyber threats and adopt basic best practices that will deter Malware infiltration, defeat phishing attempts, and keep your employees secure online. In this age of remote work, it’s more important now more than ever for your team to adopt good cyber habits that will keep them safe while working from their home offices. Keep in mind that security awareness training not only applies to their business activity but can also help employees protect their personal data. Think of yourself and the people that work within your organization as the first line of defense against cyberattacks.
Why is Security Awareness Training Needed?
Hackers are getting smarter and a traditional antivirus or firewalls alone just won’t cut it anymore. The first line of defense is human, and hackers are aware of the strings they need to pull in order to get the desired response. The first step is gaining the necessary awareness needed to understand what’s happening. Your team cannot be prepared for an attack if they have zero clue about what to look out for. As to why this awareness is needed, it should go without saying, ignorance = vulnerability. It’s time to get educated!
What are Some Security Best Practices?
- Change your password often and don’t store your passwords locally
- Always use two-factor authentication
- Keep up with monthly patching!
- Enroll in Security Awareness Training (Seriously!). The threat landscape is always changing and evolving
For a deeper dive into preparing your team for phishing, malware, and email attacks,
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How Do I Know Security Awareness Training is Working?
Peace and silence are good indicators that your security awareness training has done its job. You know it’s working when your company doesn’t fall prey to cyberattacks and when there is a protocol for dealing with cyberthreats.
IE can take it a step further to provide an objective level of assurance that the training was effective. We can provide online assessments (quizzes) to your users before and after the following the training, as well as a few weeks following the training to gauge retention. We can also provide a customized phishing campaign to determine the susceptibility of our users to phishing emails.
The Price of NOT doing Security Awareness Training
When you consider this question, ask yourself the worth of consumer data? A data breach could compromise your clients, other employees, and even your own family. If you're in healthcare, a data breach of patient data amounts to a hefty (and costly) HIPAA violation, for example. In this digital age, you can’t really afford NOT to do some form of security awareness training, or at the very least, stay updated on cyber threats and trends!
Why Security Awareness Training is Needed Now More than Ever
As you well know by this point, COVID-19 has disrupted the way we do business, and the practices adopted during this time (remote work) are likely to remain a large part of the business world moving forward. We’ve seen a huge uptick in Malware (phishing and trojan attempts), since people have been stuck at home. As I mentioned earlier, Hermes and now Ryuk have introduced polymorphic malware attacks and leveraged social engineering to steal data and hold users virtually hostage to their demands. There is always something newer and smarter around the corner, and attacks skyrocket when huge events are happening (think about election time, and Cyber Monday, etc.). Stay informed!
Sign Your Team Up for Security Awareness Training
IE offers a unique program that educates your team on timely and relevant cyberthreats. Follow the link and request a quick discussion with our security team. Take that first step and help make your team a formidable first line of defense against cyber threats!
