Better safe than sorry: that’s a credo that many businesses like to stick to, and when it comes to cybersecurity, it seems to be the right way to go.
In ensuring the all-encompassing protection of your company from cyber threats, the role of cybersecurity training has proven invaluable in recent years — in a dynamic landscape where new cybercrimes appear daily and amidst the massive shift to remote work caused by the pandemic. Such training contributes directly to the ability of your team to exercise prevention rather than to address cyber-attacks only when they’ve become a fact.
Still, many employers need persuading that cybersecurity training is a worthwhile investment. Some of them may be doubting the value of such an approach, especially if they have dedicated security teams and protection mechanisms. However, educating your whole team about the major threats out there is, in fact, crucial. You only have to take a brief look at some of the major hacks in 2021 to see that in many cases, problems start with a human error or as a result of the social engineering tactics of attackers.
Companies of all sizes — from SMBs to large corporations — are introducing cybersecurity training on a regular basis, after realizing the importance of preparing their staff to handle threats. Here are some bright examples of how companies are putting cybersecurity training on their priority list — and winning the cyberwar from this move.
Why Cybersecurity Training is Crucial Today
Companies often make the common mistake to think that only a big IT department equipped with bulletproof software can save them from attacks on their digital systems. However, real-life examples show that having a solid cybersecurity strategy actually starts with acknowledging the importance of the human element in cyber crimes — alongside empowering your cybersecurity specialists to act with the right technical capabilities.
Cyber threats are often technical endeavors — including major hacks like DDoS attacks, yet still a major part of successful attacks are due to effectively manipulating and deceiving people. It’s often human error at the core of allowing a cyber attack to occur, irrespective of the industry as no field is spared such attacks, but especially in healthcare, manufacturing, finances, and banking. A successful attack can lead a company to bankruptcy, especially in the case of an SMB. That’s why it’s important to have cybersecurity training at each level of the company, whichever sector a business is situated in. That is how a company can build a human firewall to protect itself in a truly effective way.
Social engineering attacks turn out to be the most typical type of cyber threat, as FBI’s Internet Crime Report proves. In particular, phishing attacks lead the statistics. In this type of cyber attack, criminals mislead people into believing they are communicating with legitimate parties, and manage to extract sensitive data like login credentials, payment information, and similar. Thus, preventing phishing and other types of cyber threats takes more than installing the latest firewall or having a large IT department. You need every single person on your team to know and recognize cyber threats.
Cybersecurity training entails instructing employees to:
- Be aware of what the most common cyber threats are, including pervasive phishing attacks, social engineering attacks, weak authentication, and remote work threats
- Know how to recognize them when they’re being implemented against your company, i.e. recognizing malicious links and emails and similar
- Have clear procedures on how to react once an attack occurs
- Proactively report and take measures on incidents
On the Agenda for a Growing Number of Businesses
Just a few years ago, cybersecurity training seemed more like an extra feature to a company’s cybersecurity strategy.
The pandemic, however, accelerated the move to remote work, which in turn, brought about a whole new plethora of cyber threats. With employees using company digital assets remotely, attacks became much easier to execute — and new possibilities for infiltrating company systems also arose.
These trends resulted in an overall increase in cybersecurity spending. Gartner expects the global information security market to reach $170.4 billion in 2022. While not the major expense within this spending, more and more companies are allocating budgets to cybersecurity training for all of their staff.
Don’t Skip on the Cybersecurity Training
Providing your employees with the knowledge and the right tools to recognize and act on cyber threats is essential in a time when cyber crimes are becoming ever more prevalent. Having your whole team trained builds up your business’ strength from within — and that’s the value of proactive cybersecurity. This is being recognized by a growing number of companies worldwide — from small and medium ones to large corporations.
While not an easy feat, achieving the best results from cybersecurity training is smoother when you have a trusted partner like Amatas. We can offer a range of services within our Managed Security Awareness portfolio, including:
- Social Engineering Susceptibility Assessment that pinpoints the psychological vulnerabilities of your team members;
- Security Awareness Program Management which provides you with a fully outsourced security training program that’s created with your business context and company culture in mind;
- Cybersecurity Coaching for your employees;
Ready to start your cybersecurity training efforts? You can get in touch today to learn how Amatas can help.
