The weakest link of the cybersecurity chain is the user. Therefore, expensive antivirus and software may not always hold up to the human factor. All the organizations from small to large enterprises must implement good security practices and should have awareness educational programs. Security awareness programs can be beneficial for the following reasons:
- Reduction in Errors: Employees will be aware of suspicious emails and aware of phishing, vishing, and spear-phishing scams. Educated employees decreases the number of breaches caused by lack of awareness.
- Security Enhancement: Employees will be able to avoid and protect themselves from social engineers.
- Increase in Compliance: Educated employees have greater awareness of regulations, policies and procedures implemented by the company thus increasing acceptance and obedience of rules.
- Cost Effective: Data breaches are expensiceA security awareness program is an investment and can save you money. Data breaches are expensive and an prepared and educated team can reduce the chances of a data breach.
How should companies approach awareness training and how can they improve the training program?
There are many ways to approach an awareness training program based on the budget and the size of the company. The most common ways to approach and to improve the training program are given below:
1.Focus on employees’ behavioral change
The most dangerous threats for the organization are inside the organization who have access to sensitive data with the motive of stealing and gaining financial profit. Such a threat is known as an insider threat. By focusing and analyzing the employee’s behavior change, it will help the company to protect from the insider threats. Therefore, by focusing on and analyzing employees’ behavior at the workplace, talking with them to see how the person is doing. Most of the companies failed to focus on employees, and therefore it leads to employees quitting the job or to make money, they take a bad decision to steal and sell the company’s sensitive data.
2. Training regularly is a must.
To be a well-protected company from the inside and the outside, all employees from every department should cooperate with the security department. Regular training is a must to ensure all departments of the company are practicing the best security. “By layering training exercises with ongoing phishing simulations and event-activated learning to link training to real events, you can automatically deliver training at the most effective frequency.”
3. Go over the company’s security policy and procedure
Every company has its culture and mission statement to bring all together to work and make a difference. Also, the IT department develops a security policy and procedures to be followed and meet the expectation of the employees. The HR team implements the security policy and procedures into actions by giving training to the employees. Therefore, the HR team plays a vital role in Cybersecurity.
4. Schedule Phishing and Social engineering simulations at random intervals
By scheduling phishing and social engineering simulations in random intervals to eliminate your employees’ ability to predict your phishing email cadence and track behavioral change over time. Phishing is the most common attack vector for many threats and cyberattacks. Throughout the interval, the company can get a record of how many employees are practicing cybersecurity, and based on the report, the company encourages more training programs.
5. Being flexible with the corporate culture
Nobody likes to be forced to take any training. To make sure all employees understand the culture of the company, the company should try to blend security with the culture of the company to understand. Senior management and employees should work together to develop a strategy that blends the company’s security program.
