Ezra Bishop
Author
Cyber awareness is crucial to a variety of different businesses. In fact, virtually every business incorporating technology and employing other people must have some form of policy or plan to stay secure when using the internet.
How can you best train people to know the importance of cybersecurity and protecting your business and all of its private data while using the internet. This doesn’t need to be an overly complex process, but it is vital that you work out a strategy so that you don’t lose your data or customer data, which can be extremely costly for businesses.
How to train more cybersecurity savvy employees. Source: pixabay.com
Involve senior management in the cybersecurity awareness program
Cyber security awareness is not just some buzzword or something to mention once in company training and then ignore. It is a company culture, and like any culture it is important that this is incorporated from the very top.
If you have a management structure, incorporating everyone in a senior position can be a great way to make sure that everyone is aware and that the message spreads. It also means that if any employees have questions they may be able to use senior managers as a touchpoint and to ask them about best practices.
Conduct regular cybersecurity training
This is not something to just train employees on one time and then ignore. Cybersecurity is part of your business for the long term, whether you like it or not. On top of that, the world of cyber and staying safe is always changing.
Staff turnover should also be considered. If you have new members of staff you need to make sure that they are trained to the highest standards possible, and regular training and updates is the perfect way to do this, as well as refreshing existing employees.
Practice cybersecurity awareness
You can actually put this into practice as well. A lot of companies do things like send out fake phishing scams and other types of suspicious communications to check whether their employees are good at working out when there is something not quite right. This is also a way for them to practice the processes, and what to actually do when there is a threat. How should you deal with it? Who do you need to contact?
Additionally, if there are threats spotted on your business, making everyone aware of them can be a way to continue the training throughout your day-to-day functioning.
Train your employees to use the internet safely
The use of the internet is something that many employees might not think of as hazardous, and they may go about browsing sites (often on your own company internet connection) without any clue of the risks that come with using the internet.
It is a good idea to hide IP address information if you possibly can, and encouraging employees to do this by using a VPN, or connecting via proxy servers, is a way to keep them from leaking potentially vital data.
Some huge data leaks have come from using the internet and forming connections to sites and servers that may seem innocent at first to the untrained eye. Help employees to realize this, especially when it comes to potential downloads.
Onboarding with cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is vitally important, as we’ve already established. If you have excellent standards of security in your business then it is easy to assume that new employees will keep these up, but if they have not been trained to the same level, how can this possibly be expected?
Cybersecurity for every employee means that when the time comes to onboard a new member of staff, they are being properly briefed and trained on every area of cybersecurity. This may not feel like your best use of time if you want your employees to get on with the task at hand, but ensuring that data and privacy are always safe is nothing short of essential. It only takes one weak link to risk company data or allow a compromise in your system that could have catastrophic consequences.
Conclusion
Companies are a huge target for cyber criminals. Phishing and cyber attacks cost companies billions every single year, and the financial implications of this could be fatal for your business.
Make sure that you implement a system to keep staff aware of all the risks that are out there, and implement robust systems to secure every member of staff. You can prioritize which data to keep safe and secure, but every member of staff, however junior, needs to know what cybersecurity involves and how they can ensure safety for your whole business whether they are uploading files, responding to emails, or just browsing the web.
Cybersecurity is always changing along with the threats in the industry. Ensure your team has the best defense possible.
Ezra Bishop is the customer success manager at WhatIsMyIpAddress. He helps customers learn how things operate and enjoys sharing his knowledge and experiences through blogging.
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