When to Invest in Cybersecurity Training

Cybersecurity Awareness in the Pandemic Era

In 2020, the world woke up to find itself in the middle of a full-blown pandemic. Life, as we knew it, changed overnight.

The way we work, educate, connect, and communicate, changed. Many companies found themselves switching to work from home mode with very little preparation for what that entailed.

Statistics from all over the world showed cybercrime was on the rise, with cyber breaches being reported in the hundreds of thousands, while cost to recover from malware and phishing ranked in billions.

Many companies found themselves learning that they were only as "cybersecure" as their weakest link, the weakest link here being an uninformed employee.

Working from Home?

With remote working on the rise, hand in hand with increasing phishing attacks, identity theft, intellectual property theft, malware and more… one thing is certain: the value of having informed employees.

SMEs scrambled to shift their work landscape from internal to remote but so many failed at educating their staff in the risky nature of working at home without the secure working environment and infrastructure.

why cybersecurity training is important

Most cyberattacks begin with a phishing email, one of the most detectable and easily avoidable threats, yet so many people fall victim to it.

By implementing cybersecurity training for employees, this is one of the most avoidable disasters an SME can hope for. Not only will your company be more equipped against security threats, but your staff will feel the added value of a training program, while your clients will feel safer knowing that you are committed to keeping their information secure.

So what is cybersecurity training for employees? How much or how little is needed to ensure that the staff understand the threats, the company mitigates the risk, while the training is not overly technical.

There are so many topics to be covered, but maybe not all are relevant to you and your company. You could start by talking to an expert who can assess your cybersecurity training needs and customize a plan for you.

The basics of a proper cybersecurity training would include encryption, password understanding, the dangers of Wi-Fi and USBs, and also backing up data.

A good training program would include the following:

Anti-Phishing:

Phishing emails are the leading cause of a cyber breach and the most avoidable when your staff are trained to recognize it.

Mobile Device Safety

Your personal devices would usually contain a lot of company information and so it is important that employees know how to keep them secure.

Password Security

The simplest form of safety yet many can get it wrong. Your company needs a clear password policy to keep safe.

Social Engineering

This is the art of manipulating personnel into giving up sensitive information and staff need to be able to identify it.

For more information, check out some of the resources on our LinkedIn Page.