We live and depend so much on the digital world. Majority of our day-to-day activities have migrated online – from work, communication, shopping, interaction etc. This increased use of the internet and mobile usage gives cybercriminals even more opportunities to exploit our vulnerabilities.
According to Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report, more than 80% of breaches involved the human element, including social engineering attacks, errors and misuse of stolen credentials – people continue to play a large role in incidents and breaches alike. Threat actors look to exploit this weakness to infiltrate an organisation’s networks and systems. Human beings are still the weakest link in any organisation’s digital security system, so humans rather than technology now represents the greatest risk to organisations. People make mistakes, forget things, or fall for fraudulent practices. This is where cybersecurity awareness comes in.
Cybersecurity awareness helps educate employees about malicious methods used by cybercriminals, how they can be easy targets, how to spot potential threats and what they can do to avoid falling victim to these threats. It empowers the workforce with the right knowledge and resources to identify and flag potential threats before they cause any damage. Cybersecurity awareness training not only helps stop threat actors in their tracks, but also promotes an organizational culture that is focused on heightened security. A well-defined cybersecurity awareness training can help significantly reduce the cost and number of security incidents in organisations.
Comprehensive role-based training for technical and non-technical staff is the best way to equip the right people with the skills and knowledge needed to understand what cyber risks are, their impact on the business, how to detect cyberattacks and ways to avoid such risks. Delivering the appropriate training to each team is vital to building a cybersecurity awareness program that motivates lasting behaviour change.
A strong cybersecurity awareness training program should at minimum have the following features:
- Educational content – structured lessons, information for learning through newsletters, weekly emails, and policy updates that are accessible to employees according to their roles
- Testing – guide through simulated attacks like phishing, evaluations, and assessments to evaluate enterprise workforce to follow best practices in cybersecurity
- Follow-up, and ongoing messages – short refresher to identify and overcome risks and handle security problems against emerging threats
- Metrics of reporting worker – identify weaknesses, and flaws in the current programs and update them for effectiveness
- Make it part of your culture – make cybersecurity part of the onboarding process.
Cybersecurity awareness can be reinforced by employees being sent mock phishing and malware messages to see how they react, and then provide targeted training to those who fail to respond in a secure manner.
Cybersecurity awareness training, should be a continuous process or a series of programs where there is constant accrediting of awareness situations across the job roles at the organisation.
Cyberattacks are inevitable, but preventable. The only way around the cybersecurity challenge is to strengthen the weakest link first. Start with educating your employees, contractors, temporary workers and everyone else that completes authorized functions online at your organisation. Build a risk-aware workspace for a more secure tomorrow by enforcing cybersecurity awareness training.
