What is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is a series of processes that involves protecting sensitive information, critical business systems and strategies from being breached or compromised. In cyberspace, these are referred to as cyber-threats or cyber-attacks. As the technology we use daily keeps evolving, so do the cyber attacks, and the means to damage businesses and individuals through cyber attacks keep getting sophisticated. There is an urgent need to implement complex cybersecurity measures to limit frequent cyber threats.

What is cybersecurity awareness training?

A question remains unanswered, which is, ‘What do you do when the threat landscape is growing, and how do you prevent cyber attacks from happening?’ Easier said than done. It is vital that Individuals stay aware of the dreads of falling prey to cyber-attacks. Cybersecurity awareness plays a crucial role in keeping the risks of cyber threats at bay.

A robust cybersecurity strategy enables businesses to protect and defend themselves from cyber threats, including attacks designed to gain unauthorized access, manipulate or steal data, and extract or swindle money from businesses and employees to disrupt an organization’s reputation.

How vital is cybersecurity awareness training for businesses?

There is a grave need for organizations to concentrate on building web applications that are robust and hard to penetrate by hackers. In order to minimize risks, the organization must take a collective approach well in advance. For organizations to protect their reputation from cyber attacks and threats, employees need cybersecurity awareness training.

There are many reasons why the employees of an organization need to undergo cybersecurity awareness training. Some of them are:

1. Enhance the organization’s resilience towards cyber threats. Businesses can minimize risks from the evolving threat landscape by empowering their employees to stay ahead of the curve in cybersecurity. Being informed on the cyber attacks and threats helps the employees stay one step ahead and stay vigilant to prevent cyber attacks.
2. Create a shift in employee mindset and behaviour change toward information security. This enables them to understand that security is the need of the hour and helps them to identify vulnerabilities and avoid security threats by assisting the security team with risks before it is too late.
3. Enable employees to be aware of the best cybersecurity practices, thereby helping them to secure the organization’s and the employee’s sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands that lead to cyber attacks such as ransomware attacks and identity theft.
4. Helps employees to understand the hacker’s moves, grasp the social engineering techniques used in cybercrimes like ransomware attacks, and stealing sensitive information that belongs to the employees.
5. Maximize productivity by reducing downtime from malware infections caused by poor computer hygiene practices, as they can cause significant problems for businesses with multiple employees who share computers.
6. Most importantly, it enables organizations to prioritize building a robust security system and prevent cyber-attacks, then focus on the aftermath of cyber threats after they occur.

How Often Should Organizations Conduct Cybersecurity Awareness Training Programs?

A cybersecurity awareness program is essential to any organization’s information security program. Through these programs, employees can learn about security threats, best practices, and reporting suspicious activity. A security assessment allows your organization to identify problems and improve its security posture.

Organizations are to conduct security awareness training at least once a year. This allows employees to refresh their knowledge about information security policies and procedures. Security breaches can occur when employees are not aware of what to do. Having key awareness points at the tip of your fingers is crucial.

The right time to conduct an initial security awareness training program is when an employee is hired. This period is ideal for helping employees understand the best practices and put them to proper use from the very start.

The frequency with which organizations should conduct these trainings depends on several factors, including the size of the organization and its overall risk level. In comparison, in larger companies, this training may have to be organized every six months, depending on their specific situation and industry.

Protecting businesses from cyber attacks

There are a few steps to prevent cyber-attacks, and they are:

1. Education employees on cybersecurity awareness help enable best practices among employees and also helps to prevent cyber attacks in the organization.
2. Implementing privileged access enabled the leaders in an organization to better control the sensitive information of the organization and the employees.
3. Monitoring, detecting and responding to the identified vulnerabilities helps the organization to stay ahead of the curve and prevent further cyber threats in the future.
4. Managing Third-Party-Risks plays a vital role as it helps identify and fix the vulnerabilities that are deeply hidden within an organization, which can be dangerous and cause a devastating cyber attack on the company.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity awareness training programs are crucial for organizations and employees shortly with the rise in the cyber threat landscape and the sophistication of cyber attacks. In many instances, cybersecurity awareness training among employees in numerous organizations has prevented cyber attacks and data loss that can be avoided. Human errors has proven to be the weak links that lead to cyber threats most of the time. Hence, it is all the more important to make sure that individuals stay aware of the cybersecurity risks and best practices to avoid them.