In the modern world, it’s important for organizations to make sure their employees are safe online. If a company is serious about preventing cybercriminals from gaining access to its private information, it must provide cybersecurity awareness training to all of its personnel.
Due to a lack of cyber knowledge, employees are unaware of what caused a data breach to happen and whether any team members were responsible for the incident.
A successful employee cybersecurity training program (Access, 2022) can minimize workplace tension by enhancing workers’ self-assurance in their knowledge and approach to cybersecurity. It is essential to customize cybersecurity awareness training for both technical and non-technical personnel to ensure that it is relevant for each group.
Securing The Human Elements
Providing employees with cyber security training is essential. The more trained employees are in cybersecurity, the more they can do to ensure the safety of the business.
When the attack happens employees are the ones who will have to deal with an attack first, so they need to be trained in cybersecurity awareness. There will be less risk and more benefit for businesses that foster a culture of cybersecurity awareness and preparedness among their staff.
We can determine that the personnel are prepared and able to quickly counteract phishing frauds using methods as below:
1) Provide evaluation for employees.
Employees’ familiarity with phishing scams and the actions they can or cannot take should be evaluated in a variety of ways across the organization. In order to determine whether or not they have received adequate training. For instance, through questionnaires and minor exams.
2) Conducting Phishing Simulation
Organizations should set up phishing simulations to determine whether or not their workers can recognize phishing emails.
3) Protection for BYOD devices
Maintaining the protection and security of the employees’ own BYOD devices (which may include smartphones, PCs, and tablets) brought to the workplace is also very important to ensure the safety of the devices. They need to go through a thorough check using protection software such as antiviruses, endpoint detection response (EDR), mobile defense threats etc
.
Importance of cyber security awareness training for employees.
Below are the reasons why it is essential to educate employees about cybersecurity (University, 2022).
1) To Defend Against Cybersecurity Attacks
Employees and the company as a whole might benefit from cybersecurity training to help ward off potential threats and attacks. In order to counteract cyber threats, employees need to be trained in the latest detection and mitigation techniques. The weakest link in the chain can be strengthened by giving staff the tools they need to detect and eradicate cyber threats.
2) To Maintain Customers Confidence
When a cyberattack occurs, word quickly travels throughout the world, whether through the media or word of mouth. Anyone may tell that a company’s security was breached because of a lack of cyber security training among its workers. It erodes confidence in the reliability of the business. For instance, if a corporation is hacked, customers’ personal information may be at risk of falling into the wrong hands. It is crucial for a company to provide security training so that its employees can respond appropriately to even the most basic forms of cyber-attack.
3) Working at Remote Locations
Since COVID-19, there has been an uptick in cybercrime aimed at vulnerable remote workers. Employees will be better to protect themselves against online threats in their personal lives as a result of this training. They will be able to secure themselves remotely even if they don’t have the resources of a large corporation when it comes to security.
4) Avoid Email Phishing
We can avoid email phishing by not clicking links or attachments from emails if the sender is unknown or external to the organization. In addition, examine the email carefully to ensure that it is not a duplicate of the original and look for faults or spelling errors.
How to Spot Email Phishing?
Email phishing is essentially a sort of social engineering (Trade, 2022). Cybercriminals employ email phishing methods to lure victims into their traps in order to gain access to their passwords, bank accounts, company assets, and more. Protecting yourself and your organization from email phishing is critical because it can disrupt services, steal sensitive information, and even demand ransom payments. The company’s most valuable assets and sensitive personnel information could be compromised. It is crucial to educate employees on the significance of email phishing so that they do not fall into their trap.
There are several methods for verifying the originality of an email:
1) Verifying the link by hovering over it
Everyone must confirm the link by hovering over it to determine if the destination address matches the one displayed in the link or not. By taking this easy precaution, many people can avoid being phished.
2) Check the domain name
Domain names are yet another indicator of phishing schemes. A key concern is that any individual or organization can purchase a domain name from a registrar. While it is true that each domain name must be unique, there are numerous methods for producing addresses that are almost identical to the actual one.
3) Check for spelling errors.
Incorrect syntax and misspelt words can also lead to the identification of phishing emails. As we all know, if it came from a reputable organization, it would never be written this way.
4) Impersonal message
A phishing email can be recognized in this way. Why would a legitimate company that knows you by name start an email to you with “Dear user”? Instead, reputable businesses you do business with should expressly use your first name, last name, etc. when communicating with you.
5) Too good to be true
We can identify a phishing email if we receive an email from an external source that contains task-related downloading files. For instance, “You’ve won $10,000! Download the file to claim your prize.” These are cases of phishing emails. Never open such emails or perform any steps.
Free Phishing Security Test
The purpose of this Free Phishing Security test is to provide a safe space for IT teams to implement email phishing simulations for all the employees in the company.
Find out what percentage of your employees are at risk and how many of your users are clicking on phishing links.
Click here for a Free Phishing Security Test
IT Security Awareness Program
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The significance of cybersecurity awareness training for employees cannot be overstated. If they are well taught and aware of the types of attacks they may face, they will know what action to take. This will protect them against any type of attack, regardless of its severity.
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References
The benefits of cyber security awareness training within universities. Available at: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/the-benefits-of-cyber-security-awareness-training-within-universities/139452/
Comission, F.T. 2019. How to Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams. Available at: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams
University, V. 2022. 5 easy ways to protect yourself from cyber attacks. Available at: https://www.vu.edu.au/about-vu/news-events/study-space/5-easy-ways-to-protect-yourself-from-cyber-attacks
Zebra, C. 2022. Free Phishing Security Test – Condition Zebra | Cyber Security Company Malaysia. Available at: https://condition-zebra.com/free-phishing-security-test/
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