Security Awareness Training Is Crucial For Your Business

 

Why Security Awareness Training is Essential

 

If you run a business, security awareness training for employees protects the assets of your organization.

 
If your data security strategy focuses mainly on the antivirus software you use, your business is at risk. Infecting a computer with a virus is just one attack vector that criminals might use to get sensitive data.
 
In this post, we’re going to highlight other potential cyber security risks and go through your best line of defense. First, check out visualized data below well combined in the infographic by EveryCloud below:
 
 
 

 

 

What is Cyber Security?

Cyber security refers to the advanced threat protection of sensitive data. A solid network security strategy entails looking at security holistically. The antivirus software is important, but it’s not going to do much good if your staff can’t recognize potential threats.
 
 

What Potential Cyber Security Threats are There?

Threats could come from many different avenues. Here are some examples:
  • Standard malware can be downloaded by clicking on the wrong link.
  • Phishing attacks are becoming more sophisticated. Phishers may target specific employees to gain access to privileged information or get them to transfer funds.
  • There’s always a danger of infected hardware being used. Do an experiment yourself – leave a USB drive in a public area and see what your staff do. In a similar experiment, 200 USB drives were dropped at random — 17 % of the people that found them plugged them in to see what was on them.
  • Employees may access your network over unsecured public Wi-Fi networks.
 
 

How You Can Guard Against These Threats

You need to conduct a regular cyber security audit and employee training to ensure that your staff is up to date on potential threats.  Data protection is everyone’s responsibility.
 
 

Conduct Basic Security Awareness Training

Your first step is to ensure that at least one person in the company has attended some sort of cyber security course. Alternatively, hire a consultant who specializes in cyber security training to go over the cyber security basics with your staff.
 
IT security training should encompass:
  • Creating strong passwords: Alternatively, consider installing a system that makes use of a random password generator instead.
  • Identifying potential risks: Show your employees examples of phishing emails. Let them learn more about email security and identifying dodgy emails.
  • Best practices: These include things like not logging into a public network.
 

Institute Business Security Protocols

It’s best to work the best practices in terms of data safety into your business policies. Your staff must have a clear idea of what:
  • Is and is not acceptable
  • The guidelines in terms of how many times to change their passwords, update antivirus software, and so on.
  • What protocol to follow if they identify an attack
  • Who to report the matter to
 

Take Firm Steps to Protect Your Data

As a business, you also need to do your part. You should:
  • Ensure that you have secure communications by installing a strong spam filter and email monitoring software. This software is one of the most useful cyber security tools because it blocks potentially risky emails before they get to your servers. If the staff doesn’t see them, they can’t be fooled.
  • Do regular checks. It’s a good idea to create your own phishing emails. These should be sent to your staff periodically to test their acuity at recognizing these threats.
 

Final Notes

It’s essential to take every step that you can to protect your data. In this instance, your staff may well be the weakest link. If they are unable to identify potential risks, they won’t be able to guard against them effectively.
 

 

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