Cybersecurity Awareness Training for Employees

Posted: August 14, 2023

Cybersecurity has gradually become more and more of a focus for modern businesses as threats to data and general operations have mounted over time. This means that businesses need to approach their security with a multi-layered strategy, involving a combination of the right tools, IT leadership and user awareness training. Let’s take a few moments to dive into security training for employees and why it is so critical.

Phishing Remains a Leading Threat

The approach that hackers take when targeting businesses has changed over time. Rather than directly targeting an organization’s network in an attempt to break into it, an attacker will bypass the obstacles that cybersecurity protections put up by taking advantage of users through a social engineering process known as phishing.

Amidst a phishing attack, a hacker will reach out to one of your team members in an attempt to fool them into providing access. This approach is surprisingly successful, and is present in over 74% of today’s breaches and ransomware infections.

While it can be challenging to spot a phishing attack, there are some important signs that employees need to be aware of:

  • A tone that doesn’t match the supposed sender
  • Misspellings and other discrepancies in key details, like email addresses, domain names, and links
  • Out-of-the-blue messages
  • Egregious spelling and grammar errors
  • Unexpected or out-of-context attachments
  • Excessive urgency behind, or open threats as a consequence of, not complying with the message
  • Ambiguous messages that motivate the recipient to investigate
  • Unusual requests, or requests for explicitly sensitive personal or financial information

Employee Training is a Must

A successful phishing attack’s consequences can be significantly dire, which makes it all the more important that your team is ready to block as many attempts as possible. This will require some training, which you can approach in a variety of ways.

One more passive option is to utilize training videos, while a more aggressive form of training could take the form of simulated phishing messages that evaluate how well your team members are able to spot and properly report these kinds of threats. Training platforms and interactive workshops can add to their preparedness as well. Just don’t forget to really emphasize—in detail—the severity of phishing’s dangers.

We can help prepare your team to deal with security threats of all kinds, providing managed security services and educating employees so they are ready to securely operate in your business. Reach out to us to learn more. 

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