The increasing number of cyberattacks worldwide over the last few years has reinforced the need to defend organizations beyond the traditional firewalls and controls already in place.
Businesses, institutions, and associations must prioritize cybersecurity training in addition to technical defense systems to mitigate cyber risk.
Today’s cybercriminal attacks the human element with sophisticated tools and precision. Staff and employees who are made aware of the potential risks associated with opening, downloading, or clicking fraudulent links, attachments, or content have a leg up on unsuspecting victims.
Mitigation measures help protect private and privileged information, data, and assets an organization stores. Information may belong to the employees, customers, partners, or vendors and safeguarding such data from prying eyes has become a critical component of an organization's cybersecurity strategy.
So what is cybersecurity awareness training and why, specifically, has it risen to prominence within every solid cybersecurity strategy?
Cybersecurity awareness training refers to the process of educating users on cybersecurity risks and how to identify and avoid them.
Properly structured cybersecurity training provides employees with the knowledge and skills necessary to protect not only themselves, but also their organization, from cyber threats. Cybersecurity awareness training includes various options and a holistic approach encompasses most or all of these categories: online courses, in-person sessions, simulated phishing testing.
As for why cybersecurity training has risen in importance so quickly, the data drives the conversation. Verizon publishes an annual report detailing the state of the industry. In one of these recent reports, human error was a contributing factor in 95% of all documented cybersecurity breaches. Pretty easy to determine the need for cybersecurity training with that type of statistic, right?
95% of all breaches involved the human element. Despite some of the most sophisticated firewalls and defense systems in place, one human error could open the door to disaster.
Cybercriminals aren’t lazy. They are innovating and pioneering new, advanced methods and means to attack targets and are often ahead of their victims in terms of resources and capabilities. With the rapid, at times exponential, advancement of cyberattack vectors, it can be difficult for an organization to keep up.
That’s exactly why cybersecurity awareness training has become the cornerstone of a well-crafted cybersecurity defense strategy.
Employees need to be educated on the latest cyber threats and understand how to spot and avoid falling victim to them.
Another reason for the rise in the necessity of cybersecurity awareness training is the growing reliance on technology in the workplace. The digital transformation is a buzz term, but it’s also a real thing. We’re constantly adding new digital elements to our days and eliminating non-digital processes.
Staffers now have mobile devices, laptops, tablets, and a myriad of other digital tools at their disposal every day. A grocery store or manufacturing facility scans thousands of products daily for inventory and purchasing purposes. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg as to all of the ways we implement digital tools and programs to solve our biggest, most time-consuming problems.
While these technological advancements bring great benefits, often to the workers themselves, they also create unseen vulnerabilities cybercriminals work quickly to discover and exploit.
With all of the digital tools we utilize daily, we capture a great deal of information. That information is valuable for various reasons and will often be targeted with phishing and ransomware attacks. Business email compromises are a large slice of the pie when it comes to the human element. A successful data breach is designed to cripple an organization and often shutters small businesses within six months of the attack.
Financial fallout, operational damages, reputational hits, they’re all real results from real data breaches against real organizations.
Are you prepared as a company or association to deal with the ramifications of not having a sound cybersecurity training strategy?
Ernst & Young compiled data for an article in late 2022 focused on employee perception of their respective organization’s cybersecurity readiness.
One of the nuggets pointed to in the piece referred to a survey by the Ponemon Institute. In the survey, only 34% of employees received cybersecurity training in the past year. So while there’s been an incredible emphasis placed on cybersecurity training from IT professionals, and incredible growth and adoption, there’s a long way to go.
It’s not too expensive to train your staff and be prepared to spot and avoid sophisticated cyberattacks. A well-designed cybersecurity training program will minimize time away from core business tasks and integrate seamlessly with existing workflows and programs in place to make efficient use of time spent.
The impact and cost of a successful cyberattack far outweighs the upfront cost of a quality cybersecurity training program featuring multiple campaign types covering general cyber training as well as realistic, safe phishing simulations to determine your problem areas and correct bad cybersecurity hygiene.
With corrective behavior actions and easy-to-understand reporting metrics and dashboards, IT personnel and cybersecurity administrators can quickly identify and mitigate cyber risk.
Remember, technology alone cannot stop, and has not stopped, today’s cybercriminal from successfully exploiting companies and organizations of all sizes at all levels.
Human error remains a significant factor in cybersecurity breaches. Employees must be educated on the risks and how to mitigate them.
For a free, no-cost analysis of your cybersecurity training program and recommendation plan, contact us from the form button to the right to learn more about our platform and solution ecosystem.
